Inquisitor formidabilis

Inquisitor formidabilis is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Pseudomelatomidae, the turrids and allies.[1]

Inquisitor formidabilis
Apertural view of a shell of Inquisitor formidabilis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Caenogastropoda
Order: Neogastropoda
Superfamily: Conoidea
Family: Pseudomelatomidae
Genus: Inquisitor
Species:
I. formidabilis
Binomial name
Inquisitor formidabilis
Hedley, 1922
Synonyms[1]

Funa formidabilis (Hedley, 1922)

Description

The length of the shell attains 46 mm, its diameter 15 mm.

(Original description) The shell is large but comparatively thin, fusiform, subturreted and sharply pointed. The spire is produced. The base of the shell is contracted. The shell contains 13 whorls . Its colour is grey-buff, maculated with chestnut at the sutures.

Sculpture:—The radials are oblique, wide-spaced, consisting of low peripheral nodular riblets, ten on the penultimate, and eleven on the body whorl . On the earlier whorls the ribs ascend the spire perpendicularly and continuously, but on the lower whorls they are less developed and less regular. There is a secondary sculpture of fine radial threads which sometimes crowd the interstitial spaces of the spirals. On the body whorl are about thirty-two broad spiral cords, and on the penultimate ten. In their interstices one or more spiral threads may arise. A funicular rib on the anterior end of the shell encloses a small false umbilicus. The fasciole is broad, and is appressed to the suture. It is smooth save for crescentic growth lines.

Aperture :—The sinus is wide and V-shaped. The outer lip is arched forwards, and the free sharp edge is bent inwards a little towards the aperture. Opposite the base of the siphonal canal is a stromboid inflection. The siphonal canal is short, wide, and sharply recurved. The columella is overspread with a thick callus rising in a low tubercle opposite the sinus. [2]

Distribution

This marine species is endemic to Australia and occurs off Queensland.

References
  1. Inquisitor formidabilis Hedley, 1922. Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 4 April 2010.
  2. Hedley, C. 1922. A revision of the Australian Turridae. Records of the Australian Museum 13(6): 213-359, pls 42-56 Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  • Rippingale, O.H. & McMichael, D.F. 1961. Queensland and Great Barrier Reef shells. Brisbane : Jacaranda Press 210 pp.
  • Powell, A.W.B. 1968. The turrid shellfish of Australian waters. Australian Natural History 1 16: 1–6
  • Wells, F.E. & Bryce, C.W. 1986. Seashells of Western Australia. Perth : Western Australian Museum 207 pp.
  • Wells, F.E. 1994. A revision of the Recent Australian species of the turrid genera Inquisitor and Ptychobela. Journal of the Malacological Society of Australasia 15: 71-102
  • Wilson, B. 1994. Australian marine shells. Prosobranch gastropods. Kallaroo, WA : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 2 370 pp.
  • Liu J.Y. [Ruiyu] (ed.). (2008). Checklist of marine biota of China seas. China Science Press. 1267 pp.
  • Tucker, J.K. (2004). "Catalog of recent and fossil turrids (Mollusca: Gastropoda)" (PDF). Zootaxa. 682: 1–1295. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.682.1.1.
  • Gastropods.com: Inquisitor formidabilis
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