Kingdom Animalia Superfamily Muricoidea Subfamily Muricinae Scientific name Homalocantha anatomica Rank Species | Class Gastropoda Family Muricidae Genus Homalocantha Phylum Mollusca | |
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Similar Homalocantha, Homalocantha zamboi, Hexaplex cichoreum, Favartia, Haustellum | ||
Homalocantha anatomica (common name: "Pele's Murex" or "Anatomical Murex") is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Muricidae, the murex snails or rock snails.
Contents
Taxonomy
Distribution
This species is distributed in the Red Sea and throughout the Indo-Western Pacific, from Japan, Philippines and Fiji to the Hawaiian Islands.
Description
Adult shell size of Homalocantha anatomica varies between 38 mm and 63 mm. These shells are solid, whitish in color, sometimes tinted with yellow or red and moderately light in weight, with five to six varices per whorl. Aperture is small and white or pink. Labial lip shows irregular denticles. Columella is smooth and siphonal canal is moderately long.
Biology
These sea snails feed primarily on boring mussels in reef rocks.
References
Homalocantha anatomica Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA