Gibbula cicer
Encyclopedia
Gibbula cicer is a species
of sea snail
, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family
Trochidae
, the top snails.
. The first two are yellow or rosy and smooth. The rest are coarsely spirally lirate with 6 or 7 lirae on the penultimate whorl. The lirae are separated by deep interstices which sometimes intersect the colored stripes. The spire
is short. The body whorl
is rounded. The base of the shell is convex and finely marked with about eight narrow lirae with its base frequently suffused with pink. The arcuate columella is straightened in the middle and oblique and very subdentate below. The white or yellowish umbilical area is small.
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
of sea snail
Sea snail
Sea snail is a common name for those snails that normally live in saltwater, marine gastropod molluscs....
, a marine gastropod mollusk 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...
Trochidae
Trochidae
The Trochidae, common name top snails, are a taxonomic family of very small to large sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the clade Vetigastropoda ....
, the top snails.
Description
The size of an adult shell varies between 5 mm and 8 mm. The solid, globose-conical shell is perforate or subperforate. It is longitudinally crossed by reddish or dark brown stripes, often broken into tessellations on the base. There are five, convex whorlsWhorl (mollusc)
A whorl is a single, complete 360° revolution or turn in the spiral growth of a mollusc shell. A spiral configuration of the shell is found in of numerous gastropods, but it is also found in shelled cephalopods including Nautilus, Spirula and the large extinct subclass of cephalopods known as the...
. The first two are yellow or rosy and smooth. The rest are coarsely spirally lirate with 6 or 7 lirae on the penultimate whorl. The lirae are separated by deep interstices which sometimes intersect the colored stripes. The spire
Spire (mollusc)
A spire is a descriptive term for part of the coiled shell of mollusks. The word is a convenient aid in describing shells, but it does not refer to a very precise part of shell anatomy: the spire consists of all of the whorls except for the body whorl...
is short. The body whorl
Body whorl
Body whorl is part of the morphology of a coiled gastropod mollusk.- In gastropods :In gastropods, the body whorl, or last whorl, is the most recently-formed and largest whorl of a spiral or helical shell, terminating in the aperture...
is rounded. The base of the shell is convex and finely marked with about eight narrow lirae with its base frequently suffused with pink. The arcuate columella is straightened in the middle and oblique and very subdentate below. The white or yellowish umbilical area is small.