Vellicolla amphorella (A. Adams, 1862)

Description

A small bubble snail (1.5–3.5 mm in shell height) with a bulbous, oval shell, whitish to translucent yellow-brown in colour. Both upper and lower lips extend beyond the last whorl of the shell; the lower lip is slightly twisted while the upper lip is rounded. The animal is light purple to reddish, with opaque white dots on the cephalic shield and pallial lobes; the mantle bears bright red lines or dots with white blotches or rosettes. The cephalic shield is indented anteriorly in the midline and bilobed posteriorly, with well-separated lobes; small eyes are visible on the neck region behind the cephalic lobes.

Distribution

Indo-West Pacific. The original description was based on syntypes from Lo-Shan-Kow, Shandong, China (probably Lushunkou; syntype ca. 3.5 mm in shell height) (Adams, 1862). A live specimen 1.1 mm in shell height was illustrated from Panglao, Philippines, by Oskars et al. (2019).

Etymology

The specific epithet amphorella is the diminutive of Latin amphora (the classical two-handled vessel), meaning "little amphora", in reference to the rounded, jar-like shape of the shell.

Remarks

This species had long been catalogued on SEASLUG.WORLD as Haminoeidae sp.11 pending a clear generic placement, and was reidentified as Vellicolla amphorella after the phylogenetic study of Oskars et al. (2019).

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References

• Bulla (Atys) amphorella, Adams A. (1862). On some new species of Cylichnidae, Bullidae, and Philinidae, from the Seas of China and Japan. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series 3, 9: 150-161.
• ブドウガイ科の1種 1, 中野理枝, 今川郁 & 今本淳. (2013). 南西諸島の後鰓類1. 頭楯亜目. ちりぼたん. 43(1-4): 1-22.
• Haminoea sp. 3, Terrence Gosliner, Ángel Valdés and David Behrens. (2018). Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification Indo-Pacific 2nd Edition. New World Pubns Inc.
• Vellicolla amphorella comb. nov., Oskars T.R., Too C.C., Rees D., Mikkelsen P.M., Willassen E. & Malaquias M.A.E. (2019). A molecular phylogeny of the gastropod family Haminoeidae sensu lato (Heterobranchia: Cephalaspidea): a generic revision. Invertebrate Systematics 33(3): 426-472.
• ミガキブドウガイ属の1種 4, 小野篤司 & 加藤昌一. (2020). 新版 ウミウシ. 誠文堂新光社.