Grazer and deposit feeder in the shallower beds of Posidonia oceanica, chiefly at depths of 1-3m (Donnarumma & al., 2016). Original taxon: Trochus ardens. Synonyms: apicalis, bicolor, sanguinea, sulcosa, venusta… – A specimen grazing on the glass of its aquarium, Port Leucate, Aude, Occitania, S. France. Original picture provided by A. Bertrand (FR) – (CC BY-NC-SA).

Lectotype MNHN-IM-2000-31292 pictured in the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle de Paris (France), from the Risso collection, and described under the name Gibbula sanguinea in Histoire naturelle des principales productions de l’Europe Méridionale…, vol. IV, Paris 1826. Original pictures provided by M. Caballer for the MNHN (CC BY 4.0).
 
« Shell bloody red, mottled white; whorls 6, the apical one mamillated, the other sculpted by some irregular cords and little oblique striae. » (p.135).

« Shell umbilicate, depressed conic, solid, usually reddish or olive-brown, with a subsutural series of short white flammules, a row of white spots on the periphery, the remainder of the surface sparcely punctate with white; spire acute, sutures markedly canaliculate; whorls about 7, convex, spirally lirate, the interstices obliquely regularly crispate-striate ; lirae 5 or 6 on the penultimate whorl, frequently grooved, and usually with lirulae between them; base with about 8 principal concentric lirae ; aperture oblique, smooth within, but apparently sulcate; columella subdentate in the middle; umbilicus funnel-shaped, bordered by a white rib. » – H. A. Pilsbry: Manual of conchology, structural and systematic vol. XI, pl.30 and p.202.

« Testa umbilicata, Spiris sulcatis, Anfractibus distinctis, Apertura argentea. » – C. A. von Salis Marshlins: Reisen in verschiedne Provinzen des Königsreichs Neapel Bd.1, Leipzig 1793, p.376. Above, Trochus ardens table VIII fig. 9, with the distorted perspective typical of this century. « The red summit and the granulose beads prove to me that Chemniz had the same snail as me; but as I found significant changes in comparison with his illustration, it is again presented here. See the ninth figure. There are many differences in the colour palette. From Naples. » – Ibid.