Limacina (Munthea) cochlostyloides Tesch, 1908
[dubious species]
Overview
This is a small, shelled, pelagic thecosomatous pteropod, with a left-coiled shell, 0.1 cm in diameter. The blunt spire is highly coiled, the body whorl increases quickly in diameter. It has 5.5 colourless, transparent whorls. There is a small umbilicus. The shell is smooth except for faint growth lines. It is found in warm waters of the Indian Ocean where it feeds on phytoplankton and it is a mucus feeder (Limacina cochlostyloides).
Taxonomic Description
The shell is thin, transparent, colourless and highly spired with rather blunt apex. The umbilicus is narrow. It has 5.5 whorls, the last one occupying 2/3 of the total shell. The fragile and thin lips of the shell aperture are regularly rounded without angles; the outer lip is regularly curved, the inner one is straight, projecting with a very thin margin over the umbilicus. This lip terminates in a short pointed rostrum. Sculpture is absent except for some faint striae radiating from the umbilicus and causing a structure at the underside of the last whorl. The suture of the type specimens was shallow, the last whorl differs in size, the aperture and umbilicus are smaller and the apex is much more blunt than in Limacina retroversa forma australis.
The height of the type specimen was 1.3 mm and its maximum diameter was 1.0 mm.
Juveniles
A special description is not available.
Reproduction
The species is a protandric hermaphrodite.
Ecology
The species is phytophagous.
Distribution
Only one specimen is recorded from the Bay of Bengal.
Types
Limacina cochlostiloides Tesch, 1907: 185
Type was preserved in RMNH, but is lost (alcohol collection).
Type locality: Gulf of Bengal. Coll.: Sowerby and Fulton.