Kingdom Animalia Superfamily Cypraeoidea Subfamily Erosariinae Scientific name Erosaria turdus Rank Species | Class Gastropoda Family Cypraeidae Genus Erosaria Phylum Mollusca | |
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Similar Erosaria, Erosaria nebrites, Erosaria albuginosa, Erosaria helvola, Erosaria ocellata | ||
Erosaria turdus, common name : the thrush cowrie, is a species of sea snail, a cowry, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.
Contents
Subspecies
Description
The shells of these cowries reach on average 30–38 millimetres (1.2–1.5 in) of length, with a minimum size of 16 millimetres (0.63 in) and a maximum size of 62 millimetres (2.4 in). They are quite variable in pattern and color. The shape is more or less oval, the dorsum surface is smooth and shiny, the basic color is whitish, yellowish or greenish, with small brown spots all over, becoming larger on the sides. The interior of the shell, visible through the aperture, may be light purple. The subspecies Erosaria turdus dilatata usually bears a large irregular patch on the dorsum. The margins are white, with several brown dots and a pronounced labial 'callus'. The base is white or pale pink, sometimes with a small brown mark in the middle. The long and wide aperture shows about 15 teeth on the columellar and labial teeth. The shells of Erosaria turdus are externally quite similar to Erosaria lamarckii. In the living cowries the mantle is yellowish or beige, with long tree-shaped brown papillae.
Distribution
This species is distributed in the Red Sea, in the Gulf of Oman and in the North West of the Indian Ocean, along Pakistan, India, in the East Africa (Comores, Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Oman, Somalia, Tanzania), in the East Coast of South Africa and - as a non-indigenous species - in European waters and in the Mediterranean Sea (Lampedusa, Israel, Djerba Island in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt), where it has been introduced through the Suez Canal.
Habitat
These cowries live in intertidal shallow waters at 2–10 metres (6 ft 7 in–32 ft 10 in) of depth. In the Indian Ocean they prefer the coral reef, while in the Mediterranean Sea they can be found on algal turf or sandy and muddy sea bed.