Mikadotrochus hirasei is a species

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 large deepwater 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...

 Pleurotomariidae

Pleurotomariidae

Pleurotomariidae, common name the '"slit snails", is a family of large marine gastropods in the clade Vetigastropoda. This family is very ancient; there were numerous species in the geological past. It is currently represented by a group of species that live only in deep water...

, the slit snails.

Description

The shell has a typical trochoid shape with a spire angle of approximately 72 degrees and nearly smooth sided until the body whorls which are slightly inflated at the shoulder with a rounded periphery. The base is moderately convex to flat, and the shell has a large nacreous (pearly) columellar callus which covers about one third of the base and can be keeled at its outer margin. The aperture

Aperture (mollusc)

The aperture is an opening in certain kinds of mollusc shells: it is the main opening of the shell, where part of the body of the animal emerges for locomotion, feeding, etc....

 is oval, the slit is positioned mid whorl and is long, about 16 to 20 percent of the circumference. The shell is heavily textured with about 20 spiral cords crossed by numerous fine crescent shaped axial growth lines above the selenizone (the area where the shell growth filled in the slit) and about 10 spiral cords below. The shell is creamy yellow overlaid with many crimson axial flammules above and below the selenizone which has yellowish orange crescent shaped growth marks, the base is a pale creamy yellow with occasional light crimson flammules, and the interior of the aperture is nacreous. The shell is occasionally found with part of its dark brown periostracum

Periostracum

The periostracum is a thin organic coating or "skin" which is the outermost layer of the shell of many shelled animals, including mollusks and brachiopods. Among mollusks it is primarily seen in snails and clams, i.e. in bivalves and gastropods, but it is also found in cephalopods such as the...

 near the margin opposite the aperture. The operculum

Operculum (gastropod)

The operculum, meaning little lid, is a corneous or calcareous anatomical structure which exists in many groups of sea snails and freshwater snails, and also in a few groups of land snails...

 is small, dark brown, multispiral, and chitinous. Size range: 45 to 129 mm diameter.

Distribution

This species is found in deep water between 150 and 300 meters on mud and sand off the coast of the Shima Penninsula in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 westwards to the Pacific coast of Shikoku Island, in the East China Sea

East China Sea

The East China Sea is a marginal sea east of China. It is a part of the Pacific Ocean and covers an area of 1,249,000 km² or 750,000 square miles.-Geography:...

 west of Kyushu

Kyushu

is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....

 to Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

, and has also been found in the central Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

.