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MURCHISONELLIDAE |
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Murchisonella anabathron (Hedley, 1906) Description: Shell minute, very elongate and narrow, spire weakly convex, up to 10 whorls. Protoconch about 1 whorl, smooth. Teleoconch whorls uniformly rounded or angled at upper quarter; upper quarter of whorls smooth apart from curved axial growth lines; remainder of whorls with fine spiral grooves, about 10 on penultimate whorl, crossed by curved threads. Aperture with inner lip reflected, expanded anteriorly, outer lip with deep sinus at suture (Fig. 2). Shell colourless transparent becoming opaque white with age. Size: Up to 4.8 mm in length. Distribution: In Australia, known from Port Stephens to Sydney, NSW, and Kangaroo Island to Ceduna, SA as well as southern Tasmania. Peñas & Rolán (2013) also reported it from Philippines, New Caledonia, Fiji, Vanuatu and Japan. Habitat: The Australian Museum specimens are empty shells from beach washup and dredgings to 10 m, plus a live-taken specimen from intertidal algae in brackish water. Peñas & Rolán (2013) reported it mainly from shallow waters, down to 30 m, but also from dredgings down to 400 m. Uncommon. Remarks: This species has been described in detail by Peñas & Rolán (2013, p. 37). In his original description and figures Hedley did not mention the outer lip sinus or the spiral threads; apparently he did not have a specimen with the outer lip intact. The shells seem to be easily worn, as most specimens in the Australian Museum have broken lips and an eroded surface. Figs. 1, 2: Redbanks, Kangaroo Is, SA (C.300604) |
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