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Cymbiola sophia

Cymbiola sophia is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Volutidae, the volutes.

Description

(Original description) The shell is ovate and smooth, with a pale brown ground color marked by four series of squarish, reddish-brown spots. Near the suture and in front of the columella it is lined with brown.

The spire is conical and convex, yet very short, and it is covered with a thin callous coating. The apex is blunt, pale whitish, and delicately crenulated. The whorls enlarge very rapidly and bear a spiral series of posterior, conical, acute, and slightly arched spines. The body whorl is ventricose, or swollen.

The aperture is ovate and about three times as long as it is broad. The pillar carries four oblique, evenly spaced folds, of which the two anterior are somewhat the largest. The inner lip, as well as the portion of the body whorl that rests against the body of the animal, is covered—like the spines—with a thin deposit of callus.

In the variety, the shell is paler and reddish, very minutely dotted with red, and the spots forming the bands are more irregular and less distinct.

Distribution

This marine species is endemic to Australia and occurs off Northern Territory and Queensland.

References

  • Bail, P. & Limpus, A. 1997. The genus Cymbiola Swainson, 1831 in Western Australia. World Shells 21-22: 5-17
  • Bail, P. & Limpus, A. 2014. A new species of Cymbiola (Gastropoda: Volutidae) from Western Australia. Xenophora. Association française de conchyliologie. Supplément 2(22-27)
  • Poppe, G.T. & Goto, Y. 1992. Volutes. Ancona : L'Informatore Piceno 348 pp., pl. 1-107.
  • Weaver, C.S. & du Pont, J.E. 1970. Living Volutes - A Monograph of the Recent Volutidae of the World. Monograph Series No. 1. Greenville Delaware : Delaware Museum of Natural History pp. 1-375.
  • Wilson, B. 1994. Australian marine shells. Prosobranch gastropods. Kallaroo, WA : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 2 370 pp.