Mauritia (animal species)
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Cowrie shell |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Mauritia | ||||||||||||
| Troschel , 1863 |
Mauritia is a screw - genus from the family of cowries (Cypraeidae).
features
The size of the housing ranges from about 32 mm (in M. depressa ) to 88 mm (in M. mauritiana ). They are cylindrical to oval, the mouth usually slightly curved. The edges are rounded or provided with calli. The brown mouth teeth are fine to strong. Usually they are short on the inner side (towards the columella) and extend over the deeply concave fossula ; they are usually longer and stronger on the outer side. The coat of the living animal is faintly transparent and brown in almost all species. The papillae are short and finger-like in growth.
Occurrence and distribution
The species of the genus Mauritia occur in the tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific . They live under stones in the flat subtidal of rocky coasts, rocky beaches and coral reefs. They are mostly nocturnal and hide under stones and crevices during the day. Some species in the genus are known to eat carrion (dead fish and mollusks).
Systematics
The genus Mauritia was established by Franz Hermann Troschel in 1863; Type species is Cypraea mauritia Linnaeus, 1758. It is not recognized by all authors as an independent genus, but is occasionally placed as a subgenus of the genus Cypraea . Mauritia is divided into two groups: on the one hand in the "Mauritia Group" and on the other in the "Arabica Group". These two groups were also viewed by a few authors as two independent genera ( Mauritia Troschel and Arabica Jousseaume). More recent works reject this strong splitting and place the species of the two groups in the genus (or subgenus) Mauritia .
The Mauritia group usually includes large and heavy animals with strong housing teeth and a very dark underside of the housing. The Arabica group includes animals with elongated, cylindrical housings of medium size, with fine but well-developed housing teeth and a dark, reticulated underside of the housing.
species
Around nine species are currently included in the genus:
- M. arabica Linnaeus, 1758
- M. asiatica Schilder & Schilder, 1939
- M. depressa Gray, 1824
- M. eglantina Duclos, 1833
- M. grayana Schilder, 1930
- M. histrio Gmelin, 1791
- M. immanis Schilder & Schilder, 1939
- M. maculifera Schilder, 1932
- M. scurra Gmelin, 1791
literature
- Franz Hermann Troschel: The teeth of the snails , Berlin 1863, Vol. 1, p. 205, 208
- Felix Lorenz and Alex Hubert: A Guide To Worldwide Cowries , 2000, ISBN 3-925919-25-2
- Barry Wilson: Australian Marine Shells Vol. 1. 408 pp., Odyssey Publisher, Kallaroo, Australia 1993, ISBN 0-646-15226-2
