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Zemira bodalla Garrard, 1966

 

Description: Shell with rounded whorls, with a deep channel at the suture.  No axial sculpture; entire shell with widely spaced spiral grooves and a single deep groove at anterior of body whorl.  Outer lip smooth,  with a small spike at the termination of the deep groove on unbroken shells; columella smooth, terminating in a broad siphonal notch.  Background colour white, with interrupted brown spiral bands on the whole surface, these sometimes coalescing into axial flames.  Umbilicus absent or a narrow chink.  Operculum corneous, large, filling the aperture.

Size: Up to 28 mm in length.

Distribution: Endemic to Australia ; Swain Reefs, Queensland , to Danger Point ( Tweed Heads), NSW.

Habitat: Known from 146-350 metres. Uncommon.

Comparison: This species is very similar to Z. australis, differing by having stronger and more widely  spaced spiral grooves, the umbilicus being slightly open, and showing a more intense colour pattern.  Z. australis occurs in south-eastern Australia , as far north as Fraser Island, Queensland, at depths down to 146 metres.  Z. bodalla occurs in southern Queensland, from Point Danger on the NSW-Queensland border and northwards, at depths of 146-350 metres.  Hence their latitudinal ranges overlap a little, but they occur at different depths.

Figs. 1,2: Off Hixson Cay, Swain Reefs, Queensland, in 216-227 m (C.383087)

 


Copyright Des Beechey 2004