Lunella smaragda

This species has a green operculum. The size of the shell varies between 35 mm and 70 mm.

The depressed, imperforate, solid shell has a heliciform shape. It is covered with a strong blackish cuticle, beneath which it is green. It is usually eroded at the apex and contains 4 to 5 whorls. The upper ones are spirally sulcate or carinate. The body whorl is large, flattened above, with incremental wrinkles and subobsolete spiral sulci. The large aperture is oblique, rounded, pearly white within. The outer lip is thin and black-edged. The arched columella has a pearly callus. The white umbilico-parietal area is excavated and concave.

The common name "cat's eye" for the synonym Turbo smaragdus is a reference to the attractively colored operculum of this species, which looks somewhat like an eye, and which is sometimes used for decorative purposes. The operculum is flat inside with four whorls. The nucleus is more than one-third the distance across the face. The outside is deep green except on the side of increment which is white. It is very minutely remotely granose.[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/77914 G.W. Tryon (1888), Manual of Conchology X; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia] (described as Turbo smaragdus)

Lunella smaragda is an endemic species found both at the intertidal and low subtidal rocky shores and soft substrates (including seaweeds) of New Zealand.Powell A W B, New Zealand Mollusca, William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979 {{ISBN|0-00-216906-1}}Glen Pownall, New Zealand Shells and Shellfish, Seven Seas Publishing Pty Ltd, Wellington, New Zealand 1979 {{ISBN|0-85467-054-8}} It is found around the North, South, and Stewart islands, on rocks between low and mid tide.

{{Reflist}}

• Powell, A.W.B. (1979). New Zealand mollusca. Marine, land and freshwater shells. Collins Auckland.
• Alf A. & Kreipl K. (2003). A Conchological Iconography: The Family Turbinidae, Subfamily Turbininae, Genus Turbo. Conchbooks, Hackenheim Germany.
• Spencer, H.G.; Marshall, B.A.; Maxwell, P.A.; Grant-Mackie, J.A.; Stilwell, J.D.; Willan, R.C.; Campbell, H.J.; Crampton, J.S.; Henderson, R.A.; Bradshaw, M.A.; Waterhouse, J.B.; Pojeta, J. Jr (2009). Phylum Mollusca: chitons, clams, tusk shells, snails, squids, and kin, in: Gordon, D.P. (Ed.) (2009). New Zealand inventory of biodiversity: 1. Kingdom Animalia: Radiata, Lophotrochozoa, Deuterostomia. pp. 161–254.

{{Commons category|Lunella smaragda}}

• [http://shell.sinica.edu.tw/english/4200detail.php?id=358&science=Lunella+smaragdus The Taiwan malacofauna database : Lunella smaragdus]
• [http://www.nabis.govt.nz/Documents/Annual%20distribution%20of%20catseye%20lineage.pdf NABIS : Annual Distribution of the cat's eye]
• [http://www.teara.govt.nz/EarthSeaAndSky/SeaLife/Shellfish/2/ENZ-Resources/Standard/1/en image of aperture and operculum of a living specimen and more information]
• [http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/search.aspx?advanced=colScientificName%3a%22turbo+smaragdus%22+colCollectionGroup%3aNE Image from collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa]
• {{Gastropods.com|key=6|id=2446|title=Lunella (Lunella) smaragdus|access-date=16 January 2019}}

image:Turbo smaragdus (juvenile).JPG|15 mm juvenile shell of L. smaragda, markedly different in sculpture than the adult form

image:Turbo smaragdus (juvenile, underside).JPG|15 mm juvenile shell of L. smaragda, underside

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smaragda

Category:Gastropods of New Zealand

Category:Gastropods described in 1791

Category:Taxa named by Johann Friedrich Gmelin

Category:Endemic molluscs of New Zealand

Category:Endemic fauna of New Zealand