| Luria isabella | |
|---|---|
| A shell of Luria isabella, anterior end towards the right | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): | clade Caenogastropoda clade Hypsogastropoda |
| Superfamily: | Cypraeoidea |
| Family: | Cypraeidae |
| Genus: | Luria |
| Species: | L. isabella |
| Binomial name | |
| Luria isabella (Linnaeus, 1758) |
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| Synonyms[1] | |
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Luria isabella, common name the Isabel's Cowry or Fawn-coloured Cowry, is a species of sea snail, a cowry, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.[1]
Contents |
The shells of these very common cowries reach on average 25–35 millimetres (0.98–1.4 in) of length, with a minimum size of 8 millimetres (0.31 in) and a maximum size of 54 millimetres (2.1 in). The basic color of these cylindrical-shaped shells is light beige or fawn or pale reddish-brown, the dorsum surface is crossed by thin discontinuous longitudinal markings and the extremities show orange-red terminal spots. The base is mainly white and the long and narrow aperture has several short teeth. In the living cowries the well developed mantle is black matt and almost velvety, with external short antennae.
This species lives in the Red Sea, along the East African coast, the Mascarene Basin and in the Indo-West Pacific Ocean (Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Melanesia, Philippines, Southern Japan, Taiwan) up to Hawaii.
Living cowries can be encountered in a wide range of habitats, in shallow and in intertidal waters up to about 35 metres (115 ft) of depth. As they fear the light, during the day they usually stay under rocks and stones or in small holes or coral caves. At dawn or dusk they start feeding on sponges, algae or coral polyps.
There have been a great many subspecies named, but most names are very dubious. However the following are generally accepted as valid names: