Palmadusta asellus

Palmadusta asellus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Littorinimorpha
Family:	Cypraeidae
Genus:	Palmadusta
Species:	P. asellus
Binomial name
	Palmadusta asellus; (Linnaeus, 1758)
Subspecies
	See text
Synonyms
	Cypraea asellus Linnaeus, 1758 (basionym);

Palmadusta asellus is a species of sea snail, a cowry, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.^[1]

Description

Palmadusta asellus has a shell reaching a length of about 2.8 centimetres (1.1 in). The shells are white with three large brown transversal bands on the upper surface. The brown mantle shows several whitish spots. In the living cowry it covers almost entirely the shells.

Subspecies

Palmadusta asellus is divided into the following subspecies:

Palmadusta asellus asellus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Palmadusta asellus bitaeniata (Geret, 1903)
Palmadusta asellus latefasciata Schilder, 1930
Palmadusta asellus vespacea (Melvill, 1905)

Distribution

This species is distributed in the seas along Aldabra, Chagos, the Comores, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, the Red Sea, Réunion, the Seychelles and Tanzania.

References

^ ^a ^b Palmadusta asellus (Linnaeus). Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species.

Verdcourt, B. (1954). The cowries of the East African Coast (Kenya, Tanganyika, Zanzibar and Pemba). Journal of the East Africa Natural History Society 22(4) 96: 129–144, 17 pls
Burgess, C.M. (1970). The Living Cowries. AS Barnes and Co, Ltd. Cranbury, New Jersey
Sea Life Base

External links

Media related to Palmadusta asellus at Wikimedia Commons

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[WoRMS-1] Palmadusta asellus (Linnaeus). Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species.

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