| Erosaria helvola | |
|---|---|
| A dorsal view of a shell of Erosaria helvola, anterior end towards the right | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): | clade Caenogastropoda clade Hypsogastropoda clade Littorinimorpha |
| Superfamily: | Cypraeoidea |
| Family: | Cypraeidae |
| Genus: | Erosaria |
| Species: | E. helvola |
| Binomial name | |
| Erosaria helvola (Linnaeus, 1758) |
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| Synonyms[1] | |
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Cypraea helvola Linnaeus, 1758 (basionym) |
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Erosaria helvola, common name : the Honey Cowry, is a species of sea snail, a cowry, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.[1]
There is one subspecies : Erosaria helvola argella (Melvill, 1888)
Contents |
These very common small shells reach on average 15–23 millimetres (0.59–0.91 in) of length, with a maximum size of 36 millimetres (1.4 in) and a minimum size of 8 millimetres (0.31 in). The basic color of the shell is orange-brown or beige, with many white dots on the top of the dorsum. The underside is orange-brown. In the living cowries the mantle is trasparent, with short white papillae.
This species is distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific, along the Red Sea, Aldabra, Chagos, the Comores, the East Coast of South Africa, Kenya, Madagascar, the Mascarene Basin, Mauritius, Mozambique, Réunion, the Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania, Polynesia and Hawaii.
Erosaria helvola live in intertidal and shallow subtidal waters or in lagoons, usually hiding during the day under the rocks of the reef.