Tonna melanostoma
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Tonna melanostoma | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||
| Tonna melanostoma (Jay, 1839) |
||||||||||||||
| Synonyms | ||||||||||||||
|
Dolium melanostoma Jay, 1839 |
Tonna melanostoma is a large species of sea snail or tun snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Tonnidae, the tun shells.
[edit] Distribution
This species occurs in the tropical Pacific Ocean, north to the Ryukyus and south to northern New Zealand.
[edit] Shell description
The shell is large, and is easily recognised by its rich dark-brown spreading parietal callus, and deeply incised twin grooves in each of the spiral interspaces. The interior of the aperture is golden-brown, with the inner edge of the outer lip, like the parietal callus, stained dark-brown. The exterior of the shell is fawn, but the interspaces of the corrugations are picked out in brown.
The shell height is up to 86 mm, and the width up to 68 mm.
[edit] References
- Powell A. W. B., William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland 1979 ISBN 0-00-216906-1
