(da Costa, 1778)

Description (shell):
Shell conical or turban-shaped, with deep sutures; solid, smooth, and glossy. Last whorl approximately two-thirds of shell length; aperture pear-shaped with shallow umbilical groove.

Size:
Up to 9 mm.

Colour:
Cream or white with irregular overlay of red or purple streaks and blotches; streaks often produce a flowing zigzag pattern. Columella, inner lip, and operculum milk-white. Specimens lacking a coloured overlay occasionally found.

Animal:
Cephalic tentacles long, slender, papillate; neck lobes comb-like with 11-14 papillate processes. Foot narrow, smooth, with double edge anteriorly and laterally; three pairs of papillate epipodial tentacles. Operculum calcareous, markedly convex in profile. The only British prosobranch with such an operculum.

Habitat:
On rocky shores near LWST and sublittorally to 35 m; intertidally most abundant on tufted red algae such as Lomentaria , Laurencia and Chondrus .

Distribution:
A southern species extending from the Mediterranean to the North Sea; rare in the North (Distr. T. picta).

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Mollusca
Class Gastropoda
Subclass Prosobranchia
Superorder Archaeogastropoda
Order Vetigastropoda
Superfamily Scissurelloidea
Family Tricoliidae
Genus Tricolia
Species Tricolia picta

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Synonym of Tricolia pullus picta (da Costa, 1778)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Turbo pictus da Costa, 1778
Phasianella pulchella Récluz, 1843
Eudora varians Leach, 1852
Phasianella pullus var. oblonga Jeffreys, 1865
Phasianella pullus var. bicolor B.D.D., 1884
Eudora dubia var. rufatra Monterosato, 1889
Eudora dubia var. atra Monterosato, 1889
Eudora picta var. rubropicta Monterosato, 1889
Eudora dubia Monterosato, 1889
Eudora picta var. specialis Monterosato, 1889
Eudora picta var. roseola Monterosato, 1889
Eudora dubia var. ardens Monterosato, 1889
Eudora dubia var. rosalba Monterosato, 1889
Phasianella pullus var. lactea Dautzenberg & Durouchoux, 1900
Phasianella pullus var. nigricans Dautzenberg & Durouchoux, 1900
Phasianella pullus var. millepunctata Dautzenberg, 1920
Phasianella pullus var. pallida Dautzenberg, 1920
Tricolia picta borealis Nordsieck, 1973
Tricolia pullus picta
Tricolia pullus

Hayward, P.J., Wigham, G.D. & N. Yonow, 1990. Mollusca I: Polyplacophora, Scaphopoda, and Gastropoda. In: The Marine Fauna of the British Isles and North-West Europe. (ed. P.J. Hayward & J.S. Ryland). Clarendon Press, Oxford: 628-730.

Seaward, D.R., 1990. Distribution of the marine molluscs of north west Europe. Nature Conservancy Council.

You can continue searching for Tricolia picta on one of these Web sites:

Fauna Europaea (animals) | IOPI (plants) | NCBI (genetic)

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