Vitularia miliaris

Vitularia miliaris
shell of Vitularia miliaris (specimen at MNHN, Paris)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Neogastropoda
Family:	Muricidae
Subfamily:	Muricopsinae
Genus:	Vitularia
Species:	V. miliaris
Binomial name
Vitularia miliaris (Gmelin, 1791)
Synonyms
Murex alutaceus Menke, 1829 Murex miliaris Gmelin, 1791 Murex purpura Deshayes, 1843 Murex vitulinus Lamarck, 1816 Purpura scabra Schumacher, 1817 Transtrafer longmani Iredale, 1929 Vitularia asiatica Kuroda in Kira, 1962 Vitularia tuberculata Swainson, 1840 · Vitulina tuberculata Swainson, 1840

Vitularia miliaris is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Muricidae, the murex snails or rock snails.

Description

The length of the shell varies between 21 mm and 56 mm.

The shell is whitish or brownish with irregular rounded ribs, which are sometimes tinged with chestnut, as though in interrupted revolving bands. The whole surface is peculiarly scabrously mamillated. The ribs are more prominent and more rounded, and the form is more ventricose and proportionately shorter than in Vitularia salebrosa.

Distribution

This marine species has a wide distribution: Indo-west Pacific, from Red Sea to Philippines; Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Fiji; also off Australia (Queensland, Western Australia).

References

• Lamarck J.B. (1816). Liste des objets représentés dans les planches de cette livraison. In: Tableau encyclopédique et méthodique des trois règnes de la Nature. Mollusques et Polypes divers. Agasse, Paris. 16 pp.
• Iredale, T. 1929. Queensland molluscan notes, No. 1. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 9(3): 261–297, pls 30–31
• Kira, T. (1962). Shells of the Western Pacific in Color. First edition. Hoikusha, Osaka, Japan, [vii], 224 pp., 72 pls.
• Radwin, G. & D'Atillio, A. 1976. Murex shells of the world, an illustrated guide to the Muricidae. Stanford : Stanford University Press 1-284, 32 pls, 192 text figs. [173, pl. 7, figs 7, 12
• Wilson, B. 1994. Australian marine shells. Prosobranch gastropods. Kallaroo, WA : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 2 370 pp.

External links

• Gmelin, J. F. (1791). Vermes. In: Gmelin J.F. (Ed.) Caroli a Linnaei Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, Ed. 13. Tome 1(6). G.E. Beer, Lipsiae
• Menke, C. T. (1829). Verzeichniss der Ansehnlichen Conchylien-Sammlung des Freiherrn von den Malsburg. Pyrmont: Heinrich Gelpte. vi + 123 pp.
• Deshayes, G.P. & Milne-Edwards, H. (1843). Histoire Naturelle des Animaux sans Vertèbres, présentant les caractères généraux et particuliers de ces animaux, leur distribution, leurs classes, leurs familles, leurs genres, et la citation des principales espèces qui s'y rapportent, par J. B. P. A. de Lamarck. Deuxième édition, Tome neuvième. Histoire des Mollusques. J. B. Baillière: Paris. 728 pp
• Schumacher, C. F. (1817). Essai d'un nouveau système des habitations des vers testacés. Schultz, Copenghagen. iv + 288 pp., 22 pls.
• Swainson, W. (1840). A treatise on malacology; or the natural classification of shells and shell-fish. Longman, London, viii + 419 pp