Ovatipsa chinensis | |
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Live Ovatipsa chinensis with mantle partly extended, head end to the left | |
Ovatipsa chinensis with its mantle fully extended | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Gastropoda |
(unranked): | clade Caenogastropoda clade Hypsogastropoda |
Family: | Cypraeidae |
Genus: | Ovatipsa |
Species: | O. chinensis |
Binomial name | |
Ovatipsa chinensis (Gmelin, 1791) |
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Synonyms[1] | |
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Ovatipsa chinensis common name the Chinese cowrie or the 'Clear Chinensis', is a species of cowry, a sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries. [1]
Contents |
The mantle of the living cowries is bright red, completely covered by short fringes. The shells of this species reach 25–50 millimetres (0.98–2.0 in) of length. They are smoot and elongate, light brown or yellowish with clear dots on the dorsum and a flat white base. In the subspecies Ovatipsa chinensis var. variolaria (Lamarck, 1810) the basic colorof the shell is light brown, with slight purple spots on the edges.
This species is found throughout the Indian Ocean and in the Central Pacific Ocean, in seas along Red Sea, East Africa, Australia, Indonesia and Philippines, in intertidal waters at 35–45 metres (115–148 ft) of depth . The Chinese cowry is active at night and hides under rocks in cracks and crevices during the day.
The following subspecies have been recognized : [1]