Vitularia miliaris

{{Short description|Species of gastropod}}

{{Speciesbox

| taxon = Vitularia miliaris

|image= Vitularia miliaris (MNHN-IM-2013-14974).jpeg

|image_caption= shell of Vitularia miliaris (specimen at MNHN, Paris)

| authority = (Gmelin, 1791)

| synonyms_ref =

| synonyms =

  • Murex alutaceus Menke, 1829
  • Murex miliaris Gmelin, 1791
  • Murex purpura Deshayes, 1843
  • Murex vitulinus Lamarck, 1816
  • Purpura scabra Schumacher, 1817
  • Transtrafer longmani Iredale, 1929
  • Vitularia asiatica Kuroda in Kira, 1962
  • Vitularia tuberculata Swainson, 1840 ·
  • Vitulina tuberculata Swainson, 1840

|display_parents= 3

}}

Vitularia miliaris is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Muricidae, the murex snails or rock snails.{{WRMS species|408054|Vitularia miliaris (Gmelin, 1791)||25 April 2010}}

Description

The length of the shell varies between 21 mm and 56 mm.

The shell is whitish or brownish with irregular rounded ribs, which are sometimes tinged with chestnut, as though in interrupted revolving bands. The whole surface is peculiarly scabrously mamillated. The ribs are more prominent and more rounded, and the form is more ventricose and proportionately shorter than in Vitularia salebrosa. [http://ia700306.us.archive.org/32/items/manualofconcholo2tryo/manualofconcholo2tryo.pdf G.W. Tryon (1880) Manual of Conchology II, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia]

Distribution

This marine species has a wide distribution: Indo-west Pacific, from Red Sea to Philippines; Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Fiji; also off Australia (Queensland, Western Australia).

References

{{reflist}}

  • Lamarck J.B. (1816). Liste des objets représentés dans les planches de cette livraison. In: Tableau encyclopédique et méthodique des trois règnes de la Nature. Mollusques et Polypes divers. Agasse, Paris. 16 pp.
  • Iredale, T. 1929. Queensland molluscan notes, No. 1. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 9(3): 261–297, pls 30–31
  • Kira, T. (1962). Shells of the Western Pacific in Color. First edition. Hoikusha, Osaka, Japan, [vii], 224 pp., 72 pls.
  • Radwin, G. & D'Atillio, A. 1976. Murex shells of the world, an illustrated guide to the Muricidae. Stanford : Stanford University Press 1-284, 32 pls, 192 text figs. [173, pl. 7, figs 7, 12
  • Wilson, B. 1994. Australian marine shells. Prosobranch gastropods. Kallaroo, WA : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 2 370 pp.