Philine orientalis A. Adams, 1855

Location: Wannai, Osezaki, Shizuoka, Japan
Date: 2016/02/27
Length: 15mm
Depth: 8.0m
Water temperature: 13.0℃

Description

A small philinid reaching about 30 mm. Body translucent white, the entire surface densely speckled with fine white dots. Lives on sandy substrates, into which it burrows readily. The internal shell is ovate-rounded, sub-involute, white, solid, glossy and without a visible spire; aperture large, anteriorly effuse, with a semicircular outer lip whose posterior angle is produced and rounded. Closely resembles Philine aperta in form but lacks the transverse impressed groove of that species; the gizzard plates moreover bear long slender end processes recalling those of Philine schroeteri.

Distribution

Western Pacific. Records include Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. The type locality is given simply as "Eastern Seas" in the Cuming collection.

Etymology

The specific epithet orientalis is the Latin for "of the east", in reference to the species' Indo-West Pacific origin.

Remarks

Originally described in Adams' "Descriptions of some new species of Lophocercid and Philinid, from the Cumingian collection" (Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 21 [for 1853]: 95, issued 1855). Philine argentata is treated as a junior synonym.