Venustilifer bountyensis

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Venustilifer bountyensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Orthogastropoda
Superorder: Caenogastropoda
Order: Sorbeoconcha
Suborder: Hypsogastropoda
Infraorder: Littorinimorpha
Family: Stiliferidae
Genus: Venustilifer
Species: V. bountyensis
Binomial name
Venustilifer bountyensis
(Powell, 1933)

Venustilifer bountyensis is a species of deep-water sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Stiliferidae.

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[edit] Distribution

This species is endemic to New Zealand, including the Bounty Islands.

[edit] Habitat

This snail is found living on sea urchin tests, at depths of between 310 and 1,540 m.

[edit] Shell description

The shell is small and subglobose, the body whorl comprising most of the shell, thin semi-transparent and smooth. The protoconch is smooth, narrow and peg-like, with a bluntly rounded tip, set obliquely to the axis of the shell. Empty shells are translucent-white, but living examples from off the Poor Knights Islands are reddish-brown, with a spiral band of translucent pale yellow encircling the shell at above middle whorl height.

Shell height is up to 3.4 mm, and the width is up to 2.6 mm.

[edit] References