Charonia variegata

Charonia variegata
A live Charonia variegata feeding on a starfish
Two views of a shell of Charonia variegata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
(unranked):	clade Caenogastropoda clade Hypsogastropoda clade Littorinimorpha
Superfamily:	Tonnoidea
Family:	Ranellidae
Subfamily:	Cymatiinae
Genus:	Charonia
Species:	C. variegata
Binomial name
Charonia variegata (Lamarck, 1816)[1]
Synonyms[2]
Charonia atlantica E. Bowdich, 1822 Charonia tritonis variegata Lamarck, 1816 Triton atlantica Bowditch, 1822 Tritonium sulcatum A. Risso, 1826 Triton nobilis Conrad, 1848 Triton variegata Lamarck, 1816 (basionym) Charonia nobilis T. A. Conrad, 1849 Charonia seguenziae (Aradas & Benoit, 1872) Charonia variegatus Reeve Triton seguenziae Aradas & Benoit, 1872 (basionym)

Charonia variegata, common name the Atlantic triton, is a species of predatory sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Ranellidae, the triton snails, triton shells or tritons.^[2]

Distribution

This species has a wide distribution. It has been found in European waters, the Mediterranean Sea, in the Atlantic Ocean along Cape Verde, the Canary Islands, North West Africa, Tanzania, in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico and from North Carolina to Eastern Brazil.^[2]

Description

The shell size varies between 100 mm and 375 mm.^[3] The maximum recorded shell length is 374 mm.^[4] This conical shell has an elongate and sharply pointed spire without any knobs, but somewhat squatter than the spire of the Pacific Charonia tritonis. The lower whorls are unevenly swollen with a varix and bulge over the suture. The suture then descends in an uneven spiral. The parietal callus is lined with a narrow, dark inner lip, covered with regularly spaced brown rib-like plicae. The outer lip is scalloped but less projected and toothed with about ten pairs of rib-like teeth superimposed on square, dark brown blotches. The color of the shell is mottled in shades of creamwhite, to yellow with brown markings. The inside of the large aperture is orange pink, the interior is white.^[5]

The species is highly variable and does not have any known geographic subspecies.^[6]

The veliger larvae have a period of pelagic development of more than three months, drifting in the trans-Atlantic currents. These larvae are the largest known of any Cymatiidae in the Atlantic, with the shell reaching 5 mm when fully developed.^[7]

Habitat

Minimum recorded depth is 0.3 m.^[4] Maximum recorded depth is 110 m.^[4]

References

1. ^ Lamarck J. B. de. (1816). Tableau encyclopédique et méthodique des trois règnes de la Nature. Paris.
2. ^ ^{a b c} Charonia variegata (Lamarck, 1816). Gofas, S. (2009). Charonia variegata (Lamarck, 1816). In: Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S.; Rosenberg, G. (2009) World Marine Mollusca database. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=181006 on 31 October 2010.
3. ^ Macsotay O. & Campos. R. 2001. Moluscos representativos de la plataforma de Margarita. Editora Rivolta. Valencia. 280p. ISBN 980-328-808-3
4. ^ ^{a b c} Welch J. J. (2010). "The “Island Rule” and Deep-Sea Gastropods: Re-Examining the Evidence". PLoS ONE 5(1): e8776. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008776.
5. ^ Charonia variegata. Sealife base.
6. ^ Clench & Turner, The family Cymatiidae in the Western Atlantic, Johsonia 3, pp. 189-244, 1957
7. ^ Rudolph S. Scheltema, Larval dispersal as a means of genetic exchange between geographically separated populations of shallow-water benthic marine gastropods, Biol. Bull. 140, p. 284-322, April 1971

Further reading

• Lamarck, J. B. de. 1816. Tableau encyclopédique et méthodique des trois règnes de la Nature. Paris, page(s): pl. 421, Liste, p. 5
• Rolán E., 2005. Malacological Fauna From The Cape Verde Archipelago. Part 1, Polyplacophora and Gastropoda
• Rosenberg, G., F. Moretzsohn, and E. F. García. 2009. Gastropoda (Mollusca) of the Gulf of Mexico, Pp. 579–699 in Felder, D.L. and D.K. Camp (eds.), Gulf of Mexico–Origins, Waters, and Biota. Biodiversity. Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas

External links