Galicia Bank to Mediterranean, on the continental shelf down to bathyal depths. Original taxon: Natica operculata.
« Shell globular, thick, opaque, glossy. Sculpture: merely lines of growth. Colour white with a tinge of yellow. Spire short ; apex blunt aud flattened. Whorls 4-5, convex, the last occupies ⅚ of the spire. Suture slight, but wide in consequence of the upper part of each whorl being compressed and shouldered. Mouth oval. Outer lip thick-edged, somewhat expanding, extending beyond the upper opening of the mouth, and angulated in that part, round below. Inner lip completely lining the base, and forming in the middle a semicircular pad, wliich is separated and defined by a narrow furrow or groove. Umbilicus rather concave unless where it is closed near the pillar by the pad. » – J. G. Jeffreys: “On the Mollusca procured during the ‘Lightning’ and ‘Porcupine’ expeditions, 1868-70 (Part IX)”, Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London for the year 1885, p.34. – Above: the species plate IV. |