Kingdom Animalia Superfamily Cypraeoidea Genus Calpurnus Phylum Mollusca | Class Gastropoda Family Ovulidae Scientific name Calpurnus verrucosus Rank Species | |
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Similar Ovulidae, Ovula, Ovula ovum, Phenacovolva, Primovula | ||
Calpurnus verrucosus, the Umbilical Egg Shell or Warty/Little Egg Cowry, is a species of sea snail, a cowry, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Ovulidae, the cowries.
Contents
Distribution
This species is mainly distributed in the tropical South East Africa and in the Western Pacific Ocean, in the waters along Madagascar, Mascarene Islands, Red Sea, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines.
Description
The shells of this species reach 10–40 millimetres (0.39–1.57 in) of length. This cowry is pure white, smooth and ovate, the base is flat and wide. The anterior and posterior extremities have a slight purple coloration, with a yellow circle at the edge of a depressed pustule (hence the Latin name of this species, verrucosus ). The mantle of the living cowries is white and completely covered by small brown spots. Also the foot is white with dark dots and can be extended widely around the base of the shell.
Habitat
Living cowries can mainly be encountered in daylight under soft corals, sponges and rocks in shallow to deep waters at a depth of 20-50 m. They primarily feed on the polyps of Leather Corals (Sacrophyton and Lobophytum species, Alcyoniidae). At night they spread their mantles on the top of the soft coral and start grazing on the polyps.