Rossiteria nucleus (Philippi 1849)

Rossiteria nucleus is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Trochidae, the top snails.^[2]

Description

The height of the shell attains 9 mm, its diameter also 9 mm. The solid shell is narrowly umbilicate and has a globose-conoida shape. It is whitish, maculated with chestnut, sometimes banded, often punctate and articulated with white dots. The conic spire is acute and short. The sutures are impressed. The 5 to 6 whorls are convex, decussated by spiral lirae and close, strong longitudinal striae. The lirae usually contain intermediate lirulae. The whorls are often a little flattened below the suture, with a slight angle at the shoulder. The body whorl is globose and convex. The aperture is slightly oblique. The outer and basal lips are closely lirate within. The short columella is concave, its edge plicate-denticulate, terminating below in a tooth. The white umbilicus is funnel-shaped. It is margined by a slight convexity terminating below the columellar tooth.

This is a peculiar little species, of globose form, with truncated columella, lirate interior, and finely decussated surface. The color pattern is very variable.^[3]

Distribution

This marine species occurs off Madagascar, the Philippines, Japan, the Fiji Islands and the Great Barrier Reef, Australia and New Caledonia.

References

• Dautzenberg, Ph. (1929). Contribution à l'étude de la faune de Madagascar: Mollusca marina testacea. Faune des colonies françaises, III(fasc. 4). Société d'Editions géographiques, maritimes et coloniales: Paris. 321–636, plates IV–VII pp.
• Poppe G.T., Tagaro S.P. & Dekker H. (2006) The Seguenziidae, Chilodontidae, Trochidae, Calliostomatidae and Solariellidae of the Philippine Islands. Visaya Supplement 2: 1–228. page(s): 110

Rossiteria nucleus is een slakkensoort uit de familie van de Trochidae.^[1] De wetenschappelijke naam van de soort is voor het eerst geldig gepubliceerd in 1849 door Philippi.