Zafrona isomella explained

Zafrona isomella is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Columbellidae, the dove snails.^[1]

Description

The length of the shell attains 5 mm, its diameter 1.5 mm.

(Described as Pleurotoma (Defrancia) grisea) The very small shell is subfusiformly ovate. It is grey or dirty white, sometimes spotted with brown below the suture, or exhibiting one or two pale or whitish spiral lines.

The shell contains eight whorls. The first 4½ are white, smooth, glossy, convex and non -perpendicular with the axis of the shell. The rest are granosely finely costate and transversely lirate and slightly convex at the sides. There are about eighteen ribs on a whorl, hardly as broad as the interstices. The lirae are finer than the ribs, six on the upper whorls and about twenty on the body whorl. The aperture is small, narrow and terminates anteriorly in a short, oblique, recurved siphonal canal. The columella is covered with a callus bearing two small tubercles just below the middle. The outer lip is externally thickened with a broadish varix, faintly sinuated above near the suture, armed within with seven strong lirae.^[2]

Distribution

This marine species occurs off Réunion, the Philippines,

References

• Drivas, J.; Jay, M. (1990). The Columbellidae of Réunion Island (Mollusca: Gastropoda. Annals of the Natal Museum. 31: 163–200.
• eMaintenon, M. (2008). Results of the Rumphius Biohistorical Expedition to Ambon (1990). Part 14. The Columbellidae (Gastropoda: Neogastropoda) collected at Ambon during the Rumphius Biohistorical Expedition. Zoologische Mededelingen. 82(34):341-374
• Kilburn R.N. & Marais J.P. (2010) Columbellidae. pp. 60–104, in: Marais A.P. & Seccombe A.D. (eds), Identification guide to the seashells of South Africa. Volume 1. Groenkloof: Centre for Molluscan Studies. 376 pp.

External links

• Duclos, P.L. (1840). Histoire naturelle générale et particulière de tous les genres de coquilles univalves marines à l'état vivant et fossile, publiée par monographie. Genre Colombelle. Didot, Paris. 13 pls
• Hervier J. (1900 ("1899")). Le genre Columbella dans l'archipel de la Nouvelle-Calédonie. Journal de Conchyliologie. 47(4): 305–391, pls 13-14
• Gould, A. A. (1860). Descriptions of new shells collected by the United States North Pacific Exploring Expedition. Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History. 7: 323-336

Notes and References

1. MolluscaBase eds. (2023). MolluscaBase. Zafrona isomella (Duclos, 1840). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=511650 on 2023-10-15
2. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/63054 Smith, E. A. (1884). Mollusca. pp. 34-116; 487-508 in: Report on the zoological collections made in the Indo-Pacific Ocean during the voyage of H. M. S. Alert 1881-2. Part I. The collections from Melanesia; Part II. Collections from the western Indian Ocean. London