Pirenella conica (Blainville, 1829)
Arabic peninsula to Myanmar, to Mascarenhas and South Africa, Red Sea, Mediterranean.
Microbial film eater in the upper infralittoral, in sheltered places characterized by a high level of salinity.
 
Strongly euryhaline, this species, present in the Mediterranean prior to 1869, could belong to the little group of pre-lessepsian molluscs, which came into the Mediterranean, released from the Red Sea via some settlements in the chain of the salt lakes of the Isthmus of Suez, possibly initiated by ancient Nile floods. Original taxon: Cerithium conicum.

Muddy bottom, in the lagoon near La Strea peninsula, Porto Cesareo, Lecche, Puglia, S. Italy. 15-19mm, 1998.
Extremely variable in colour and sculpture.
In muddy area, Elounda beach, Kolpos Mirabellou, Lasithi, N. Crete. 14mm.
« Shell turreted, conical, brownish-blackish, very glabrous; with 10 convex whorls, three or four-striated; lip protruding. » – F. J. Cantraine: “Diagnoses ou descriptions succinctes de quelques espèces nouvelles de mollusques”, Bulletins de l’Académie Royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres de Bruxelles vol. 2(11), Bruxelles 1835, p.392, about the Cerithium perolitanum, type-locality in the Messinian Lagoons of Sicily (Pantano grande and piccolo).

Young, subadult and adult collected at 5m deep, Vouliagméni marine lake, west of Perachóra, Loutráki area, N. Korinthia.
10,6-14,3-15,7mm.
Forms funicula, fusca, tricolor…
Above and below: Marsala, Trapani, NE. Sicily. 14,8-19mm.
Three rows of buttons per whorl, the subsutural one being often paler (but this last feature is not constant).
In very shallow muddy water, among meadows of Zostera marina Linné, between Navplio and Nea Kios, in the bottom of the bay, Argolida, Peloponnese, SW. Greece. 17-25mm.
This quiet and sheltered area, protected by the breakwater of Navplio’s harbour, is also colonized by Conus ventricosus, Hexaplex trunculus and Tritia neritea.
Shallow water, Skála Oropoú, East Attica, southern coast of South Euboean Gulf, E. Greece. Original picture provided by S. Apostolou (GR) for iNaturalist – (CC BY-NC).
Shallow water, Maissala (Marsala) area, Tràpani province, W. Sicily. 21,4mm.
Operculum round; nucleus central with marked concentric growth steps.

— back to Potamididae —