Nerita tessellata

Nerita tessellata, sometimes known as the checkered nerite, is a species of tropical sea snail with a gill and an operculum, a nerite, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Neritidae, the nerites.

Nerita tessellata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Mollusca
Class:
Gastropoda
(unranked):
clade Neritimorpha
clade Cycloneritimorpha
Superfamily:
Neritoidea
Family:
Neritidae
Subfamily:
Neritinae
Genus:
Nerita
Species:
N. tessellata
Binomial name
Nerita tessellata
Gmelin, 1791[1]
Synonyms[2]
  • Nerita angulata Röding, 1798[3]
  • Nerita exarata Pfeiffer, 1840[4]
  • Nerita listeri auct. non Récluz, 1841
  • Nerita varia Mörch, 1852[5]
  • Nerita commanotata Reeve, 1855[6]
  • Nerita nivosa Reeve, 1855
  • Nerita scalpta Reeve, 1855

Distribution

This nerite occurs on the shores of the Western Atlantic Ocean including Florida, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, the West Indies and Brazil.[2]

Habitat

This species lives high up in the intertidal zone on rocks.

Description

The shell of this nerite can be as large as 25 mm. The background shell color is black, usually with white markings. Fairly often the white markings are regularly spaced, and make the shell look checkered or tesselated (tiled), hence the specific name of this species.

References
  1. Gmelin J. F. (1791). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae. Editio decima tertia. Systema Naturae, 13th ed., vol. 1(6): 3021-3910. Lipsiae.
  2. "Nerita tessellata Gmelin, 1791". Malacolog Version 4.1.1. A Database of Western Atlantic Marine Mollusca, accessed 15 June 2010.
  3. Röding P. F. (1798). Museum Boltenianum. viii + 199 pp. Hamburg.
  4. (in German) Pfeiffer L. (1840). "Uebersicht der im Januar, Februar und März 1839 auf Cuba gesammelten Mollusken". Archiv für Naturgeschichte 6(1): 250-261.
  5. Mörch O. A. L. (1852). Catalogus Conchyliorum quae Reliquit D. Alphonso d'Aguirra & Gadea Comes de Yoldi. Fasciculus Primus. [vi] + 170 pp. Hafniae.
  6. Reeve L. (1855). "Monograph of the genus Nerita". Conchologia Iconica 9: pls. 1-19
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