| Phyllonotus pomum | |
|---|---|
| Two shells of Phyllonotus pomum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): | clade Caenogastropoda clade Hypsogastropoda clade Neogastropoda |
| Superfamily: | Muricoidea |
| Family: | Muricidae |
| Subfamily: | Muricinae |
| Genus: | Phyllonotus |
| Species: | P. pomum |
| Binomial name | |
| Phyllonotus pomum (Gmelin, 1791) |
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| Synonyms[1] | |
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Phyllonotus pomum, common name the "apple murex", is a species of large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Muricidae, the murex snails or rock snails.[1]
Contents |
The size of an adult shell varies between 44 mm and 133 mm.
From the original Lovell Augustus Reeve description (published 1843):
The shell is fusiformly oblong, thick, solid, very rough throughout, transversely conspicuously ridged, tuberculated between the varices ; three-varicose, varices tuberculated with a complicated mass of laminae ; fulvous or reddish brown, columella and interior of the aperture ochraceous yellow, columellar lip slightly wrinkled, edge erected, vividly stained, especially at the upper part, with very black brown ; outer lip strongly toothed, ornamented with three black-brown spots ; canal rather short, compressed, recurved."[2]
This species occurs in the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Lesser Antilles; in the Atlantic Ocean between North Carolina and Northern Brazil.