Canarias to Algarve, Mediterranean. Shallow water to a few metres deep, on rocks, stones, sandy bottoms. Grazer and detritus feeder. Synonyms: massiliense, mediterraneum, palustre, strumaticum…
1,5m deep, under rocks, Spina, Umag, Istria, Croatia.
Shell small; spiral sculpture made of numerous little flattened buttons in narrow rows, sometimes crossed by longitudinal varicose bumps; the largest diameter of the spire is near the middle, while this is near the base in other mediterranean Cerithiids. — Left: specimens in W. Kobelt: Iconographie der schalentragenden europäischen Meeresconchylien vol. IV, Cassel 1908, plate CXVII fig. 17-18 under the name “ruprestre”. Right: The species is Bucquoy, Dautzenberg & Dollfus: Les mollusques marins du Roussillon, Atlas tome I, plate 23, fig. 5-6 under the name “ruprestre var. plicata”.
Left: var. “nodulosa”, Fuerteventura, Canarias.
Center: bumps and buttons, Figueretes, Ibiza, Baleares.
Right: var. “mediterranea”, Kalymnos, Telendos, Dodekanisos.
Original pictures provided by J. Trausel & F. Slieker, Natural History Museum Rotterdam, via WoRMS – (CC BY-NC-SA).
– (CC BY-NC-SA) –
In Cerithtium vulgatum the animal is of a pale yellowish grey with numerous large dark stripes very close to each other; the stripes in lividulum are much fewer in number, and they are thinner; the animal itself shows a caramel background colour. – Original picture provided by S. Clanzig (FR) – (CC BY-NC-SA).
