Plaxiphora tricolor

Plaxiphora tricolor is a species of chiton in the family Mopaliidae.[1][2][3][4]

Plaxiphora tricolor
Plaxiphora albida in situ, in south Kerala
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Mollusca
Class:
Polyplacophora
Order:
Neoloricata
Suborder:
Acanthochitonina
Family:
Mopaliidae
Genus:
Plaxiphora
Species:
P. tricolor
Binomial name
Plaxiphora tricolor
Thiele, 1909

Distribution

This species was first described by Thiele in 1909 from Sri Lanka. The same species has been collected in southern Kerala, India in 2013. This species is commonly found intertidally.

Description

The animal is small, 1 to 1.5 cm in length and 0.5 to 1 cm in width, oval, rather flat, black rounded, valves little or not beaked. The first valve is sculptured with distinct 8 radiating ribs and two indistinct radiating ribs. The girdle is very narrow and has bristles, not spines. The tegmentum is variously blotched and streaked with brown, green and white. The tegmentum is smooth and glossy to the naked eye, very finely granulose.

The girdle is whitish, banded with brown, dorsally densely covered with very small, elongate oval, calcareous corpuscules, interspersed with long, slender hairs, bearing a blunt topped, smooth, calcareous needle. The radula extends back from the mouth to approximately one third of the animal's length. The radula is polystichous, since there are many different teeth in each row, and there are 43 rows of teeth. Plaxiphora tricolor has different colour morphs.The gill arrangement is abanal and holobranchial.

References
  1. Taxonomy and DNA Barcoding of Chitons (Mollusca: Polyplacophora) of Kerala Coast; Project Work Report (October 2013) University of Kerala; Department of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries
  2. Kaas, P. and Van Belle, R. A. 1994. Monograph of Living Chitons (Mollusca:Polyplacophora) Volume 5. Suborder Ischinochitonina: Ischinochitonidae: Ischinochitoninae (concluded) Additions to Volumes1-4. Brill, Netherlands,402pp.
  3. Subbba Rao, N. V.2003. Indian seashells, Records of the Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata,(1):416pp.
  4. Rao, N.V.S., Rao, K.V.S. and Maitra, S.1991. Marine molluscs State fauna series1: Fauna of Orissa, Zoological Survey of India, Culcutta, 3:1-175.


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