| Erronea onyx | |
|---|---|
| A shell of Erronea onyx, lateral view, anterior end towards the right | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): | clade Caenogastropoda clade Hypsogastropoda clade Littorinimorpha |
| Superfamily: | Cypraeoidea |
| Family: | Cypraeidae |
| Subfamily: | Erroneinae |
| Genus: | Erronea |
| Species: | E. onyx |
| Binomial name | |
| Erronea onyx (Linnaeus, 1758) |
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| Synonyms[1] | |
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Erronea onyx, common name the Onyx 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 quite common cowries reach on average 32–38 millimetres (1.3–1.5 in) of length, with a minimum size of 24 millimetres (0.94 in) and a maximum size of 57 millimetres (2.2 in). The dorsum surface of Erronea onyx is smooth, shiny and generally golden brown, with alternating longitudinal fuzzy bands of traslucent bluish and reddish colors (hence the Latin name onyx). The base and the margins are dark brown or black, sometimes the teeth are orange (especially in Erronea onyx adusta). In the living cowries mantle is dark brown, quite thin, with bluish papillae.
This species is distributed in the Indian Ocean along Aldabra, the Comores, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Réunion, the Seychelles, Tanzania and in the Pacific Ocean along East China, Thailand, northern Australia, Indonesia, Philippines, Palau Islands and Solomon Islands.
Erronea onyx lives in tropical and subtropical zone, in shallow subtidal water up to 5–25 metres (16–82 ft) of depth, mainly in muddy areas or sandy sea floor, feeding on algae or coral polyps.