Benhamina obliquata is a species of air-breathing sea snail

Snail

Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...

, a false limpet

Limpet

Limpet is a common name for a number of different kinds of saltwater and freshwater snails ; it is applied to those snails that have a simple shell which is more or less conical in shape, and either is not spirally coiled, or appears not to be coiled in the adult snails.The name limpet is most...

, a marine

Marine (ocean)

Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...

 pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Siphonariidae

Siphonariidae

Siphonariidae is a taxonomic family of small to medium-sized air-breathing sea snails, marine and brackish water pulmonate gastropod molluscs. These snails are sometimes known as "false limpets" because of the shape of the shell, but they are not at all closely related to true limpets...

.

This species is very large compared with the other species in the family.

This is the only species in this genus; in other words, Benhamina is a monotypic

Monotypic

In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group with only one biological type. The term's usage differs slightly between botany and zoology. The term monotypic has a separate use in conservation biology, monotypic habitat, regarding species habitat conversion eliminating biodiversity and...

 genus. It is endemic to New Zealand.

Generic name Benhamina is in tribute to British oligo- and polychaetologist, William Blaxland Benham.

Further reading

• Borland C. 1950. Ecological Study of Benhamina obliquata (Sowerby), A Basommatophorous Pulmonate in Otago Harbour. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 78, 385-393.