Maoricolpus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maoricolpus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Orthogastropoda
Infraclass: Apogastropoda
Superorder: Caenogastropoda
Order: Sorbeoconcha
Suborder: Cerithiimorpha
Superfamily: Cerithioidea
Family: Turritellidae
Genus: Maoricolpus
Finlay, 1927
Species

See text.

Maoricolpus, the New Zealand screw shells, is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Turritellidae, the Turritella snails.

Contents

[edit] Distribution

The genus is endemic to New Zealand, and Australia including Tasmania.

[edit] Shell description

The shells are rather large and solid, with many more or less straight-sided whorls.

The protoconch has about 2½ smooth whorls, increasing slowly from a small nucleus, and set somewhat mucronately on the rapidly increasing first neanic (or teleoconch) whorl. The outer lip is thin and sinuous, with a broadly concave median sinus.

[edit] Species and subspecies in the genus Maoricolpus

[edit] References