Kingdom Animalia Clade Vetigastropoda Family Trochidae Scientific name Clelandella miliaris Rank Species | Class Gastropoda Superfamily Trochoidea Genus Clelandella Phylum Mollusca | |
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Similar Jujubinus striatus, Jujubinus, Gibbula ardens, Gibbula racketti, Gibbula fanulum | ||
Clelandella miliaris is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Trochidae, the top snails.
Contents
Description
The size of the shell varies between 7 mm and 18 mm. The imperforate, rather thin, but pretty solid shell has a strictly conical shape. It is whitish or yellowish, with more or less obvious longitudinal flames, often reduced to a few spots on the ribs and a row of spots at the periphery of each whorl. The surface is densely finely sculptured by spiral lirae crossed by very regular oblique lamellae, producing a clathrate pattern. The spiral lirae number about 6 on each whorl, but often double as many, by the intercalation of riblets in the interstices. The periphery has a prominent keel, cord-like, with secondary spiral striae, or bifid, cut into compressed granules, somewhat prominent above the sutures. The base has about 8 concentric ribs. The interstices are radiately striate, sometimes with a central riblet. The spire has a conical shape with about 7 whorls. The periphery is acutely angled. The base of the shell is flat. The aperture is quadrangular. The short columella is nearly straight.
Distribution
This marine species has a wide distribution. It occurs off Lofoten Islands, the North Sea (Norway to Gibraltar), off Cape Verde Islands, West Sahara and Mauritania; in the Mediterranean Sea and the Adriatic Sea. In the Baltic Sea it has become a vulnerable species.