Nerita albicilla, common name

Common name

A common name of a taxon or organism is a name in general use within a community; it is often contrasted with the scientific name for the same organism...

 the blotched nerite, 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 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...

 Neritidae

Neritidae

Neritidae, common name the nerites, is a taxonomic family of small to medium-sized saltwater and freshwater snails which have a gill and a distinctive operculum, marine, brackish water and freshwater gastropod mollusks in the order Neritoida....

.

Description

Up to 4 cm, shell

Gastropod shell

The gastropod shell is a shell which is part of the body of a gastropod or snail, one kind of mollusc. The gastropod shell is an external skeleton or exoskeleton, which serves not only for muscle attachment, but also for protection from predators and from mechanical damage...

 surface smooth or with slight transverse ridges; small pustules and four weak teeth on the columella. Colour variegated black and white, occasionally with three conspicuous bands. White interior, pinkish-grey granular 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...

.

Distribution

tropical Indo-Pacific

• Aldabra
• Australia in Kalk
  Kalk
  Kalk may refer to:* Kalk, Cologne, a borough of Cologne, Germany* Chemische Fabrik Kalk, a former German chemical company* USS Kalk , a US destroyer during World War I* Stanton Frederick Kalk , for whom the USS Kalk is named...
  
  
• Chagos
• East Coast of South Africa
• Kenya
• Madagascar
• Mascarene Basin
• Mauritius
• Mozambique
• Red Sea
• Seychelles
• Tanzania

External links

• NCBI