Predator in the infralittoral.
Basionym: Nerita papilla. Many synonyms: cancellata, cincta, coarctata, costulata, nitidus, tener, tranquebarica, tumescens….
« Shell moderately small, 15-25mm in height, thin, pyriformly-ovate, body whorl suture deep; white in colour under a thin light brown periostracum. Sculptured with c.40-60 spiral grooves and bisected by close-set, fine axial growth lines; in some specimens spiral grooves wide-spaced in others close-set. Parietal callus narrow, folded over umbilicus posteriorly and continuing on columellar wall to base; umbilicus open and deep. The operculum is corneous, light brown in colour and translucen » – W. O. Cernohorsky: “The family Naticidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda) in the Fiji Islands”, Records of the Auckland Institute and Museum vol.8, Auckland 1971, p.201.
On sand in shallow water, Lipsi island, Dodecanese, SE. Aegean. 22mm.
« Small oval species, a little convex, light and fragile, grayish in colour, and marked with very regular and shallow transverse furrows…» – Op. cit. p.235, tome 2:1.
« it is the spaces that exist between them that form small flat ribs, hence the name we gave to this Natice. Its aperture is oval, very long. The columella is without calluses and lets the navel be seen. » – Ibid.
Details of the specimen from Lipsi. H. Brustel legit (FR).
Original picture provided by H.-t. Kim for iNaturalist.
– (CC BY) –
« 19: Sigaretus papilla – Shell moderately umbilicated, oblong-ovate, somewhat ear-shaped, whitish, partially covered with a fulvous epidermis, spire short, rather exserted, whorls slopingly convex, spirally linearly incised, concentrically rather rudely plicated. ».
« 20: Sigaretus nitidus – Shell umbilicated, semiglobose, whitish, covered with a fulvous epidermis, spire short, rather prominent, whorls slopingly convex, rather swollen, spirally linearly incised. »
« 20: Sigaretus nitidus – Shell umbilicated, semiglobose, whitish, covered with a fulvous epidermis, spire short, rather prominent, whorls slopingly convex, rather swollen, spirally linearly incised. »