Oliva incrassata

Oliva incrassata
Five views of a shell of Oliva incrassata
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
(unranked): clade Caenogastropoda
clade Hypsogastropoda
clade Neogastropoda
Superfamily: Olivoidea
Family: Olividae
Genus: Oliva
Species: O. incrassata
Binomial name
Oliva incrassata
(Lightfoot in Solander, 1786)[1]
Synonyms[2]

Oliva burchorum Zeigler, 1969
Oliva nivea Pilsbry, 1910

Oliva incrassata, the Angled Olive or Giant Olive, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Olividae, the olives.[2]

Distribution

This species is widespread from California to Peru.[3]

Habitat

These sea snails live at the low-tide level, at the outer side of sandspits. [4]

Shells of Oliva incrassata from Panama, on display at the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano

Description

Shells of Oliva incrassata can reach a length of 32–95 millimetres (1.3–3.7 in).[3] These relatively large shells are almost cylindrical, very thick, ovate, angularly swollen in the middle, with a rather short spire, a narrow and long aperture and usually with uniformly colored body whorls, except in the colummellar area. The basic color background may vary from ash-white or greyish to light yellow and brown, mottled with gray and olive, with angled transverse dark chestnut streaks and a fleshy rosy pink columellar area.[4][5]

Biology

The Giant Olives are active predators. At night they search for food, while during the day they bury themselves beneath the sand and mud.

References

  1. Sowerby G. B. [first of the name (1825). A catalogue of the shells contained in the collection of the late Earl of Tankerville. London, privately published : VII + 92 + XXXIV pp.]. World Register of Marine Species, Retrieved 28 April 2010.
  2. 1 2 Oliva incrassata (Lightfoot in Solander, 1786).  Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 28 April 2010.
  3. 1 2 Hardy's Internet Guide to Marine Gastropods
  4. 1 2 Angeline Myra Keen Sea Shells of Tropical West America: Marine Mollusks from Baja California to Peru
  5. Maurizio A. Perrini The Oliva

Bibliography


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