Vexillum exasperatum (Gmelin 1791)

Vexillum exasperatum, common name : the roughened mitre, is a species of small sea snail, marine gastropod mollusk in the family Costellariidae, the ribbed miters.^[1]

This species is sometimes spelled as Vexillum exasperata ^[2]

Description

The shell size varies between 10 mm and 29 mm

(Described as Mitra (Costellaria) exasperata var. hadfieldi) The shell is turreted with a high spire. It contains seven whorls. The shell is eight or nine ribbed, differing from the type in being dark-brown, banded at the line of the sutures of the upper whorls, and also twice transversely banded at the body whorl. The outer lip shows nodulose striae. The columella has four plaits. Occasionally specimens occur wholly suffused with dark-brown. ^[3]

Distribution

This species occurs in the Red Sea, in the Indian Ocean off Chagos Atoll, Madagascar, the Mascarene Basin and Tanzania, and in the Pacific Ocean off the Philippines, Fiji, New Caledonia and the Solomons Islands; also off Austrakia (Northern Territory, Queensland).

References

• Wood, W. 1828. Index Testaceologicus; or A Catalogue of Shells, British and Foreign, arranged according to the Linnean system. London : Taylor Supplement, pp. 1-59, pls 1-8.
• Hervier, J. 1897. Descriptions d'espèces nouvelles de Mollusques provenant de l'Archipel de la Nouvelle Calédonie. Journal de Conchyliologie 45: 47-69, pls 2-3
• Odhner, N.H.J. (1919). Contribution a la faune malacologique de Madagascar. Arkiv For Zoologi, K. Svenska Vetenskapsakademien 12(6). 52 pp, 4 pl.
• Dautzenberg, Ph. (1929). Mollusqués testaces marins de Madagascar. Faune des Colonies Francaises, Tome III
• Iredale, T. 1929. Queensland molluscan notes, No. 1. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 9(3): 261–297, pls 30–31
• Spry, J.F. (1961). The sea shells of Dar es Salaam: Gastropods. Tanganyika Notes and Records 56
• Drivas, J. & M. Jay (1988). Coquillages de La Réunion et de l'île Maurice
• Turner H. 2001. Katalog der Familie Costellariidae Macdonald, 1860. Conchbooks. 1–100 page(s): 16
• Steyn, D. G.; Lussi, M. (2005). Offshore Shells of Southern Africa: A pictorial guide to more than 750 Gastropods. Published by the authors. pp. i–vi, 1–289.