Cymbiola flavicans

Cymbiola flavicans
Apertural view of a shell of Cymbiola flavicans (museum specimen at Naturalis Biodiversity Center)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Caenogastropoda
Order: Neogastropoda
Family: Volutidae
Genus: Cymbiola
Species:
C. flavicans
Binomial name
Cymbiola flavicans
(Gmelin, 1791)
Synonyms[1]
  • Aulica kellneri Iredale, 1957
  • Aulica quaesita Iredale, 1956
  • Cymbiola (Cymbiola) flavicans (Gmelin, 1791) · accepted, alternate representation
  • Cymbiola flavicans spinosa J. K. Allan, 1950
  • Voluta (Cymbiola) kirki F. W. Hutton, 1873 (mislocalised specimen of Australian origin)
  • Voluta flavicans Gmelin, 1791
  • Voluta lugubris Swainson, 1823
  • Voluta modesta Wood, 1828
  • Voluta signifer Broderip, 1848
  • Voluta tissotiana Crosse, 1867
  • Voluta volvacea Lamarck, 1811

Cymbiola flavicans, common name the yellow volute, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Volutidae, the volutes.[1]

Description

The size of the shell varies between 60 mm and 100 mm.

(Original description in Latin as Voluta signifer): An ovate-fusiform shell, very densely marked with longitudinal lines, somewhat yellowish in color, banded with irregular, interrupted chestnut-brown markings. The spire is of moderate size, slightly swollen, with a somewhat sharp, nipple-like, smooth apex. It has three whorls, the body whorl by far the largest and somewhat inflated. The lip is sharp, and the columella bears four large folds.

Two bands composed of detached, reddish-brown, irregular, interrupted spots encircle the spiral whorls, while three such bands, with a faint indication of a fourth, ornament the body whorl. A broad space separates the upper two bands of the body whorl from the third and the faint trace of the fourth. An irregular, linear streak of the same colour runs longitudinally and centrally, linking the upper three bands. Indeed, the colouring generally appears to flow from the upper to the lower band within each pair. The terminal notch is very deep and is crowned by an unusually prominent raised ridge. [2]

Distribution

This marine species occurs off Papua New Guinea and Australia (Northern Territory, Queensland).

References

  1. ^ a b Cymbiola flavicans (Gmelin, 1791). Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 25 April 2010.
  2. ^ Broderip, W.J. (1848). "Description of a new species of volute". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 15: 232. Retrieved 12 February 2026. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  • Crosse, J.C.H. 1867. Description d'espèces nouvelles. Journal de Conchyliologie 3 5: 195–197
  • Iredale, T. 1956. A Northern Australian Volute. Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales 1954–55: 76–77, fig. 71
  • Iredale, T. 1957. Another Australian Volute. Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales 1955–56: 91–92
  • Weaver, C.S. & du Pont, J.E. 1970. Living Volutes – A Monograph of the Recent Volutidae of the World. Monograph Series No. 1. Greenville Delaware : Delaware Museum of Natural History pp. 1–375.
  • Poppe, G.T. & Goto, Y. 1992. Volutes. Ancona : L'Informatore Piceno 348 pp., pl. 1–107.
  • Wilson, B. 1994. Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch Gastropods. Kallaroo, WA : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 2 370 pp.
  • Bail P. & Poppe G.T. 2001. A conchological iconography: a taxonomic introduction of the recent Volutidae. ConchBooks, Hackenheim. 30 pp, 5 pl.