Fossarina rimata

Fossarina rimata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Prosobranchia
Order:	Archaeogastropoda
Superfamily:	Trochacea
Family:	Trochidae
Genus:	Fossarina
Species:	F. purpureus
Binomial name
Fossarina rimata (Hutton, 1884)

Fossarina rimata is a species of small sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Trochidae, the top snails.

Distribution

This species is endemic to the north east coast of the North Island of New Zealand, north of Auckland.

Habitat

This top snail lives in rock crevices, including spaces between rock oysters.

Shell description

The shell is small, thin, auriform, with a very large oval aperture. The outer lip is thin, and the inner lip almost covers the narrow crescentic umbilicus.

Coloration is pale yellowish to white, with distant dark brown spiral stripes, joined on the upper part of the whorls by diagonal streaks, to form a netted pattern.

The shell height is up to 4 mm, and the width is up to 5 mm.

References

• Powell A W B, New Zealand Mollusca, William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979 ISBN 0-00-216906-1