Tritia incrassata, common name the thick-lipped dogwhelk, is a species of small sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Nassariidae, the Nassa mud snails or dog whelks.[2]

Tritia incrassata
Shell of Tritia incrassata
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Caenogastropoda
Order: Neogastropoda
Family: Nassariidae
Genus: Tritia
Species:
T. incrassata
Binomial name
Tritia incrassata
(Ström, 1768)[1]
Synonyms[2]
  • Buccinum ascanias Bruguière, 1789
  • Buccinum coccinella Lamarck, 1822
  • Buccinum incrassatum Strøm, 1768 (original combination)
  • Buccinum lacepedii Payraudeau, 1826
  • Buccinum macula Montagu, 1803
  • Buccinum minutum Pennant, 1777
  • Hinia incrassata (Ström, 1768)
  • Nassa delicata Reeve, 1854
  • Nassa deshayesii Drouet, 1858
  • Nassa elongata Bucquoy, Dautzenberg & Dollfus, 1882
  • Nassa goreensis Maltzan, 1884
  • Nassa interjecta Locard, 1886
  • Nassa intermedia Forbes, 1844
  • Nassa jousseaumi Locard, 1886
  • Nassa rosacea Reeve, 1854
  • Nassa saxatilis Brusina, 1870
  • Nassa senegalensis Maltzan, 1884
  • Nassa tenella Reeve, 1854
  • Nassa valliculata Locard, 1886
  • Nassa varicosa Bucquoy, Dautzenberg & Dollfus, 1882
  • Nassarius (Hinia) incrassatus (Ström, 1768)
  • Nassarius incrassatus (Strøm, 1768)
  • Planaxis affinis Risso, 1826
  • Planaxis desmarestiana Risso, 1826
  • Planaxis rosacea Risso, 1826

Description

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The shell up to 15 mm high with rather high spire and a rounded body whorl. The protoconch is small, distinctly cyrtoconoid with 2.5 smooth whorls. The teleoconch contains 6-7 convex whorls, with a sculpture of regular spiral cords, broader than the interspaces. Its axial folds become distinctly flexuous on the body whorl. The aperture is bordered externally with a strong varix forming a rim, normally unique - not repeated at the earlier growth stages on the spire. The inner side of the outer lip bears ca. 10 denticles, elongated in the spiral direction. The parietal edge of the aperture forms a very thin, appressed callus, with a distinct adapical denticle, continued into a thicker columellar callus with a slightly raised edge. The base of the body whorl has a groove delimiting the outer part of the siphonal canal.

The colour of the shell is extremely variable, with distinct combinations of brown, black, yellowish or orange hues, most often with a paler band on abapical part of spire whorls and periphery of body whorls. Elsewhere it is arranged in bands or in spiral series of blotches, or uniform. The aperture is white with a highly diagnostic black blotch inside the siphonal canal.[2]

Distribution

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This species occurs in European waters, throughout the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Atlantic Ocean (from Norway to southern Morocco, also off the Canary Is. and the Azores) at depths between the shoreline to ca. 100 m.

References

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  • Cernohorsky W. O. (1984). Systematics of the family Nassariidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda). Bulletin of the Auckland Institute and Museum 14: 1–356.
  • Backeljau, T. (1986). Lijst van de recente mariene mollusken van België [List of the recent marine molluscs of Belgium]. Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen: Brussels, Belgium. 106 pp.
  • Hayward, P.J.; Ryland, J.S. (Ed.) (1990). The marine fauna of the British Isles and North-West Europe: 1. Introduction and protozoans to arthropods. Clarendon Press: Oxford, UK. ISBN 0-19-857356-1. 627 pp
  • Gofas, S.; Le Renard, J.; Bouchet, P. (2001). Mollusca, in: Costello, M.J. et al. (Ed.) (2001). European register of marine species: a check-list of the marine species in Europe and a bibliography of guides to their identification. Collection Patrimoines Naturels, 50: pp. 180–213
  • Ávila, S.P.; Cardigos, F.; Santos, R.S. (2004). D. João de Castro Bank, a shallow water hydrothermal-vent in the Azores: checklist of marine Molluscs. Arquipélago (Ciénc. Biol. Mar./Life Mar. Sci.) 21A: 75-80
  • Muller, Y. (2004). Faune et flore du littoral du Nord, du Pas-de-Calais et de la Belgique: inventaire. [Coastal fauna and flora of the Nord, Pas-de-Calais and Belgium: inventory]. Commission Régionale de Biologie Région Nord Pas-de-Calais: France. 307 pp
  • BODC (2009). Species list from the British Oceanographic Data Centre
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