Marine Species Identification Portal : Euspira pulchella

(Risso, 1826)

Description (shell):
Shell glossy, globose, with 6-7 slightly tumid whorls; last whorl accounts for most of shell height; sutures shallow, spire almost flat-sided. Sculpture of numerous, fine, prosocline growth lines; smooth to naked eye. Periostracum often retained within umbilicus. Aperture large, almost semicircular, with a thickened peristome; outer lip arises tangential to last whorl; inner lip partially occludes rather elongate umbilicus, and swells to fill angle between outer lip and last whorl (E. pulchella-drawing).

Size:
Up to 16 x 14 mm.

Colour:
Buff or light horn-coloured, columella and base pale; five spiral rows of brown marks on body whorl, one row on whorls of spire.

Animal:
Snout short, broad, with extensible proboscis; cephalic tentacles long, rather flat. Eyes are insunk and usually invisible. Foot large, with expanded propodial and opercular lobes; in active animals propodium forms a ploughshare, covering anterior of shell, opercular lobes being drawn up around posterior part of the shell.

Habitat:
On sand and gravel; usually sublittoral from 10 to 50 m (recorded from 2000 m), but occasionally at LWST.

Distribution:
Distributed from Mediterranean to Norway (Distr. E. pulchella).

Euspira pulchella