Turbo smaragdus
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| Turbo smaragdus Gmelin, 1791 |
Turbo smaragdus, or cat's eye, is a gastropod mollusc of the family Turbinidae endemic to New Zealand. It is found around the North, South, and Stewart islands on rocks between low and mid tide.
The shell is large and solid, with evenly convex smooth whorls in the adult, but juveniles are often strongly tricarinate. Colour is dull light green, under a thick greenish-black periostracum. The aperture and excavated parietal callus is silvery-white and iridescent. The edge of the peristome is narrowly margined with moss-green. The operculum is bluish-green, with a large heavily callused white area - the inner surface is thickly covered with a chocolate-brown periostracum.
Height is up to 70 mm, and width 73 mm.
[edit] References
- Powell A W B, New Zealand Mollusca, William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979 ISBN 0-00-216906-1
- Glen Pownall, New Zealand Shells and Shellfish, Seven Seas Publishing Pty Ltd, Wellington, New Zealand 1979 ISBN 85467 054 8
