Micrelenchus purpureus

Micrelenchus purpureus, common name the red opal top shell, is a species of medium-sized sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Trochidae.

Description

The length of the shell varies between 16 mm and 32 mm. It grazes on seaweed.

(Described in Latin as Trochus texturatus) The conical shell is imperforate (lacking an umbilicus) and solid. It is ashy-gray , tinged with green or rose, and is cancellated (latticed or cross-hatched) with spiral cords with rose spots and with thin increment lamellae: the spire has 7 whorls, which are scarcely convex, with the body whorl being sub-angulate (slightly cornered). The aperture is rounded and expanded anteriorly. The columella is rounded, with the outer lip being sloping and sharp. The interior is pearly and iridescent.

Distribution

This marine species occurs off North Island and South Island, New Zealand.

References

• Kiener, L.C. (1850). Genre Trochus (plates only). Spécies général et iconographie des coquilles vivantes. 11. Rousseau & Baillière, Paris.
• Hombron J. B. & Jacquinot H. (1848 [March]). Atlas d'Histoire Naturelle. Zoologie par MM. Hombron et Jacquinot, chirurgiens de l'expédition. in: Voyage au pole sud et dans l'Océanie sur les corvettes l'Astrolabe et la Zélée pendant les années 1837-1838-1839-1840 sous le commandement de M. Dumont-D'Urville capitaine de vaisseau publié sous les auspices du département de la marine et sous la direction supérieure de M. Jacquinot, capitaine de Vaisseau, commandant de La Zélée. Vingt-quatriéme livraison. Insectes lépidoptéres pls 1,2; Mollusques pls 9, 11, 12.

External links

• Gmelin J.F. (1791). Vermes. In: Gmelin J.F. (Ed.) Caroli a Linnaei Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, Ed. 13. Tome 1(6). G.E. Beer, Lipsiae [Leipzig]. pp. 3021-3910
• Menke, K. T. (1828). Synopsis methodica molluscorum generum omnium et specierum earum, quae in Museo Menkeano adservantur; cum synonymia critica et novarum specierum diagnosibus. XII + 91 pp.
• Gould A.A. (1849). [Descriptions of new species of shells, brought home by the U. S. Exploring Expedition]. Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History. 3: 83-85, 89-92, 106-108, 118-121 [May 1849], 140-144

Further reading

• Powell A. W. B., New Zealand Mollusca, p. 55; William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979
• Marshall, B.A. 1998: The New Zealand Recent species of Cantharidus Montfort, 1810 and Micrelenchus Finlay, 1926 (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Trochidae). Molluscan Research 19: 107-156 (p. 114)