Clavus (gastropod)

Clavus is a genus of small sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Drilliidae.[1][2]

Clavus
A shell of Clavus exasperatus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Caenogastropoda
Order: Neogastropoda
Superfamily: Conoidea
Family: Drilliidae
Genus: Clavus
Montfort, 1810
Type species
Clavus flammulatus
Montfort, 1810
Species

See text

Synonyms[1]
  • Clavicantha Swainson, 1840
  • Clavus (Tylotiella) Habe, 1958 ·
  • Drillia (Clavus)
  • Eldridgea Bartsch, 1934
  • Pleurotoma (Clavus) Montfort, 1810
  • Tylotia Melvill, 1917
  • Tylotiella Habe, 1958

Description

Apart from the general characteristics of the genera in the family Drilliidae, the species in the genus Clavus have a shell with peripheral tubercles, spines or wing-like processes.[3] The aperture is rather large. The outer lip is produced below the sinus.[4]

The shell of Clavus is characterised by the following features:— Flat indefinite fasciole, indicated only by the curve of growth lines. A smooth subulate protoconch. An insinuation of the outer lip, near the base, like that of Strombus. A major sculpture of prominent arched scales on the shoulder, and a minor sculpture of dense, microscopic, waved, spiral striae.[5]

Most species in this genus have a dorsal varix. But this is absent in a few species such as Clavus beckii, Clavus humilis and Clavus pica.

G.W. Tryon correctly preserved the genus for smooth specimens with a short body whorl, long spire, nodulous shoulder, no spiral sculpture, a wide, deep anal sulcus adjacent to the suture and, in the completely adult, a marked subsutural callus on the body.[6]

Distribution

The species in this genus occur in the Red Sea, In the Indian Ocean off Mozambique; also off Indonesia, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Solomon Islands, Japan and Australia (New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia).

Species

According to the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) the following species with valid names are included within the genus Clavus :[7]

Species brought into synonymy
Species inquirenda

The Indo-Pacific Molluscan Database adds the following species with names in current use :

  • Clavus siebenrocki (Sturany, 1903)
Subgenus Clavus
  • Clavus intermaculatus (E. A. Smith, 1879)

References
  1. Clavus. Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 21 August 2010.
  2. P. Bouchet; Yu. I. Kantor; A. Sysoev; N. Puillandre (2011). "A new operational classification of the Conoidea (Gastropoda)". Journal of Molluscan Studies. 77 (3): 273–308. doi:10.1093/mollus/eyr017.
  3. Chen-Kwoh Chang, Small Turrids of Taiwan, Chapter 3 , History and Taxonomy of the Clavidae; June 1, 2001
  4. George Washington Tryon, Manual of Conchology vol. VI p. 155; 1884 (treated as section within the genus Drillia)
  5. Hedley, Charles (1920), A revision of the Australian Turridae; Records of the Australian Museum, vol. XIII nr. 6, Sydney
  6. W.H. Dall (1918) Notes on the nomenclature of the mollusks of the family Turritidae; Proceedings of the United States National Museum v. 54 (1918)
  7. WoRMS : Clavus
  • Montfort, 1810 [Conchyliologie systématique, 2: 434]
  • Habe T. (1958). On the radulae of Japanese marine gastropods (4). Venus. 20(1): 43-60, pls 2-3
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