Tectus maximus

Tectus maximus is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Tegulidae.[2][3]

Tectus maximus
Tectus maximus shell
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Vetigastropoda
Order: Trochida
Superfamily: Trochoidea
Family: Tegulidae
Genus: Tectus
Species:
T. maximus
Binomial name
Tectus maximus
(Koch in Philippi, 1844)[1]
Synonyms
  • Tectus (Tectus) niloticus maximus (Koch, F.C.L. in Philippi, R.A., 1844)
  • Trochus marmoratus Kiener
  • Trochus maximus Koch in Philippi, 1844

Distribution

This marine species occurs off the Fiji Islands and Indo-Malaysia.

Description
Apertural view of a shell of Tectus maximus

The height of the shell attains 95 mm, its diameter also 95 mm. The shell is less ponderous than Tectus niloticus. Its form is strictly conical. The whorls of the spire are decidedly plicate or tuberculate, planulate. The body whorl is not dilated at the periphery. The flat base is concentrically grooved. The columella is less oblique than in the type.[4]

This species was first considered an arrested or primitive form of Tectus niloticus, as in the conic form, flat, lirate base, and sculptured spire, it exactly resembles an immature specimen of the latter species. But in 1869 Dr. von Martens considered them different species.[5]

References
  1. Koch, in Philippi; Abbild. u. Beschreib., Trochus, t. iv, f. 3. 1844.
  2. Bouchet, P. (2012). Tectus maximus (Koch in Philippi, 1844). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=580118 on 2012-09-01
  3. Williams S.T., Karube S. & Ozawa T. (2008) Molecular systematics of Vetigastropoda: Trochidae, Turbinidae and Trochoidea redefined. Zoologica Scripta 37: 483–506.
  4. Tryon (1889), Manual of Conchology XI, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
  5. Dr. von Martens, Ann. and Mag. N. H., 1869, p. 97
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