Rochia maxima
Species of gastropod
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rochia maxima is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Tegulidae.[2][3]
| Rochia maxima | |
|---|---|
| |
| Shell | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Subclass: | Vetigastropoda |
| Order: | Trochida |
| Family: | Tegulidae |
| Genus: | Rochia |
| Species: | R. maxima |
| Binomial name | |
| Rochia maxima (Koch in Philippi, 1844)[1] | |
| Synonyms | |
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Distribution
This marine species occurs off the Fiji Islands and Indo-Malaysia.
Description
The height of the shell attains 95 mm, its diameter also 95 mm. The shell is less ponderous than Tectus niloticus. Its form is strictly conical. The whorls of the spire are decidedly plicate or tuberculate, planulate. The body whorl is not dilated at the periphery. The flat base is concentrically grooved. The columella is less oblique than in the type.[4]
This species was first considered an arrested or primitive form of Tectus niloticus, as in the conic form, flat, lirate base, and sculptured spire, it exactly resembles an immature specimen of the latter species. But in 1869 Dr. von Martens considered them different species.[5]
