Aplus dorbignyi (Payraudeau 1826)

Aplus dorbignyi is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Pisaniidae.^[1]

Description

The shell size varies between 10 mm and 20 mm. This shell is quite variable in pattern and shape. Usually it is quite elongated, with strong axial ribs. It shows a brown or yellowish background with paler nodules and one or two suprasutural white bands along the spirals. The interior is white.

The ovate, subfusiform shell is pointed at its summit. It is composed of eight very distinct whorls, a little swollen, ridged lengthwise by several subnodulous folds, covered also by transverse striae and ridges. The aperture is ovate, violet, edged with reddish, and narrowed at its base. The outer lip is deeply furrowed within. The columella is nearly straight, subgranular; rarely having a distinct fold at the base. The general color is brown, varied with fawn color, with a white zone at the base of each whorl, a broader decurrent band towards the middle of the body whorl.^[2]

Distribution

This species occurs in European waters, the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea and in the Atlantic Ocean off Mauritania. It lives under rocks at low tide,

References

• Vine, P. (1986). Red Sea Invertebrates. Immel Publishing, London. 224 pp.
• Coen G. (1933). Saggio di una Sylloge Molluscorum Adriaticorum. Memorie del Regio Comitato Talassografico Italiano 192: pp. i–vii, 1–186
• Wolff, W.J.; Duiven, P.; Esselink, P.; Gueve, A. (1993). Biomass of macrobenthic tidal flat fauna of the Banc d'Arguin, Mauritania. Hydrobiologia 258(1–3): 151–163
• Gofas, S.; Le Renard, J.; Bouchet, P. (2001). Mollusca, in: Costello, M.J. et al. (Ed.) (2001). European register of marine species: a check-list of the marine species in Europe and a bibliography of guides to their identification. Collection Patrimoines Naturels, 50: pp. 180–213