Lithopoma tuber

Lithopoma tuber, common name the green star shell, is a species of large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Turbinidae, the turban snails.[1][2]

Lithopoma tuber
Shell of Lithopoma tuber (Linnaeus, 1758)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Vetigastropoda
Order: Trochida
Superfamily: Trochoidea
Family: Turbinidae
Genus: Lithopoma
Species:
L. tuber
Binomial name
Lithopoma tuber
Synonyms
  • Astraea dominicana A. H. Verrill, 1950
  • Astraea tuber (Linnaeus, 1758)
  • Astraea tuber dominicana A. H. Verrill, 1950
  • Astraea venezuelensis Flores & Caceres, 1984
  • Astralium tuber Linnaeus, 1758
  • Cidaris tuberculata Röding, 1798
  • Imperator tuber Linnaeus, 1758
  • Trochus tuber Linnaeus, 1758

Description

The size of the shell varies between 25 mm and 75 mm. The imperforate, very solid shell has a turbinate-conic shape. Its color pattern is dirty white or pale green, radiately maculated with brown above, irregularly marked and lighter below. The shell contains six whorls. The upper two are smooth by erosion, the following whorls are obliquely coarsely plicate and finely wrinkled in the same direction above, somewhat shouldered. They are obtusely angular near the periphery, above which several obscure beaded lirae revolve, shagreened by intersection of incremental striae and oblique wrinkles. The base of the shell is nearly smooth. The oval aperture is very oblique and silvery within. The short columella is wide, and generally bituberculate at the base, excavated over the location of the umbilicus.

The operculum is oval, its nucleus sublateral. Its outside is white or slightly brownish, very convex, nearly smooth, and excavated near the center.[3]

Distribution

This marine species occurs off Southeast Florida, USA and off the West Indies.

Habitat

This species occurs at depths between 0 m and 30 m.

References
  1. Lithopoma tuber (Linnaeus, 1758). Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 5 October 2011.
  2. Alf A. & Kreipl K. (2011) The family Turbinidae. Subfamilies Turbininae Rafinesque, 1815 and Prisogasterinae Hickman & McLean, 1990. In: G.T. Poppe & K. Groh (eds), A Conchological Iconography. Hackenheim: Conchbooks. pp. 1-82, pls 104-245.
  3. G.W. Tryon (1888), Manual of Conchology X; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia (described as Astralium tuber)
  • Linnaeus, C. 1758. Systema Naturae. 10th ed., vol. 1: 824 pp. Laurentii Salvii: Holmiae
  • Röding, P. F. 1798. Museum Boltenianum. viii + 199 pp. Hamburg.
  • Verrill, A. H. 1950. New subspecies from the West Indies. Conchological Club of Southern California, Minutes 101: 5–7.
  • Turgeon, D.; Quinn, J.F.; Bogan, A.E.; Coan, E.V.; Hochberg, F.G.; Lyons, W.G.; Mikkelsen, P.M.; Neves, R.J.; Roper, C.F.E.; Rosenberg, G.; Roth, B.; Scheltema, A.; Thompson, F.G.; Vecchione, M.; Williams, J.D. (1998). Common and scientific names of aquatic invertebrates from the United States and Canada: mollusks. 2nd ed. American Fisheries Society Special Publication, 26. American Fisheries Society: Bethesda, MD (USA). ISBN 1-888569-01-8. IX, 526 + cd-rom pp.
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