dcsimg
Creatures » » Animal » » Molluscs » Snails » » Columbellidae »

Paxula subantarctica (Suter 1908)

Description

provided by NMNH Antarctic Invertebrates

MITRELLA SUBANTARCTICA, n. sp. Pl. VII, Fig. 5.

Shell small, acuminate, smooth to the naked eye, polished, semitransparent fulvous. Sculpture consisting of fine and dense microscopic spiral striæ on all the whorls, lightly decussated by the fine and somewhat oblique growth-lines. Colour yellowish brown, with a darker band below the suture, produced by the lower part of the preceding whorl. Spire high, conic, nearly one and a half times the height of the aperture; outlines straight. Protoconch of one and a half whorls, papillate. Whorl6, regularly increasing, lightly convex, the last whorl rounded and a little contracted at the base. Suture impressed, but not deep. Aperture oval, subvertical, with a very short, widely open canal. Outer lip sharp, not much thickened, convex, smooth inside, sometimes with a slight contraction below. Columella vertical, somewhat arcuate, bent to the left toward the base; inner lip narrow, smooth, extending over the faintly excavated parietal wall. Operculum unknown. Diameter 2·7, height 5·4 to 6 mm.

Hab.-Near the Bounty Islands, in 50 fathoms (Captain J. Bollons).

Nearly allied to M. paxillus, Murdoch, but not so slender, the spiral striæ closer, more numerous, and always present, and the body-whorl not angled.”

(Suter, 1908: 180)