Simnialena marferula

Simnialena marferula is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Ovulidae, the ovulids, cowry allies or false cowries.[1] It lives on the sea whip, Leptogorgia virgulata.

Simnialena marferula
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Mollusca
Class:
Gastropoda
(unranked):
clade Caenogastropoda
clade Hypsogastropoda
clade Littorinimorpha
Superfamily:
Cypraeoidea
Family:
Ovulidae
Subfamily:
Simniinae
Genus:
Simnialena
Species:
S. marferula
Binomial name
Simnialena marferula
Cate, 1973
Synonyms[1]

Neosimnia uniplicata Andrews, 1971

Description

The shell of is shiny and smooth, and the shape of an elongated egg, with a flat base which shows a long, narrow, slit-like aperture. The shell grows to 2 cm long and the coil of the typical gastropod shell is not visible. The colour varies from ivory white to pink.

Distribution

Simnialena marferula occurs in shallow water on the eastern coast of the United States, Colombia, Jamaica and Brazil.[2]

Ecology

Simnialena marferula has a symbiotic relationship with the sea whip Leptogorgia virgulata on which it lives. The snail's white colour is derived from the pigments it absorbs and which it incorporates into its shell after eating debris from the coral.[3]

gollark: Oh, and coltrans, while you're here, extant and not subject to macroscale [REDACTED], do you have any opinions/thoughts/transmissible cognitohazards regarding note-taking software?
gollark: YET.
gollark: *he says, on a discord server dedicated to esoteric languages with ~0 practical application*
gollark: And in case of a ηK-class event there is the emergency physics override.
gollark: Maths controls π and stuff obviously but GTech™ facilities are designed to operate in a wide range of geometries.

References
  1. Simnialena marferula Cate, 1973. WoRMS (2009). Simnialena marferula Cate, 1973. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=430995 on 5 June 2010 .
  2. Simnialena uniplicata Gastropods.com. Retrieved 2011-12-11.
  3. Patton, Wendell K. (1972). "Studies on the Animal Symbionts of the Gorgonian Coral, Leptogorgia Virgulata (Lamarck)". Bulletin of Marine Science. 22 (2): 419–431.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.