Cominella maculosa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Cominella maculosa | ||||||||||||||||
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| Cominella maculosa (Martyn, 1784) |
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Buccinum maculosum Martyn, 1784 |
Cominella maculosa, or the spotted whelk is a species of predatory sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Buccinidae, the true whelks.
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[edit] Distribution
This species is endemic to New Zealand, north of the Banks Peninsula.
[edit] Habitat
This species lives intertidally.
[edit] Shell description
The shell is large and solid, elongate-ovate, with lightly convex whorls, almost smooth; usually badly eroded.
The shell coloration is pale greenish-yellow, with numerous spiral series of squarish dark reddish-brown spots. The aperture is bluish-grey to purplish-brown, and the columellar callus is tinged with purplish-brown.
The shell height is up to 46 mm, and width up to 24 mm.
[edit] References
- Powell A W B, New Zealand Mollusca, William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979 ISBN 0-00-216906-1
- Glen Pownall, New Zealand Shells and Shellfish, Seven Seas Publishing Pty Ltd, Wellington, New Zealand 1979 ISBN 85467 054 8
