Marine Species Identification Portal : Cerithiella metula

(Lovén, 1846)

Description (shell):
Shell tall, slender and glossy. Spire nearly flat-sided, slightly cyrtoconoid. The diameter of the bulbous protoconch is usually marginally greater than that of the first postlarval whorls. The first whorl of the protoconch is smooth, the second has many crescentic axial ridges. Whorls (up to eighteen in all) with spiral ridges and costae, the former the more obvious. The spiral ridges (3-4 on each whorl of the spire, 4-5 on the last) are narrower than the intervening spaces and are marked by small tubercles where they meet the costae, of which there are 24 on each whorl. The most basal spiral ridge on the last whorl is usually smooth. Aperture small, quadrangular, with oblique siphonal canal. Last whorl occupies 30-40 % of shell height, aperture about 20 %.

Size:
Up to 12 x 4 mm.

Colour:
Yellowish white or white.

Animal:
The flesh is white. There are two slender tentacles which appear curved and ringed, with an eye at the base of each. The foot is long and narrow.

Habitat:
Animals have been found on soft bottoms 40-400 m deep.

Distribution:
From Mediterranean to Iceland (Distr. C. metula).

Cerithiella metula