Aeneator otagoensis

Aeneator otagoensis is a species of large sea snail, a whelk, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Tudiclidae.^[2]

Aeneator otagoensis
Shell of Aeneator otagoensis (specimen at the Auckland War Memorial Museum)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Neogastropoda
Family:	Tudiclidae
Genus:	Aeneator
Species:	A. otagoensis
Binomial name
Aeneator otagoensis Finlay, 1930[1]
Synonyms
Aeneator otagoensis cookianus Dell, 1956

Distribution

New Zealand^[3]

Description

Aeneator otagoensis was discovered and described by New Zealand malacologist Harold John Finlay in 1930.^[1] Finlay's type description reads as follows:

Aeneator otagoensis n. sp.

Very close to A. marshalli (Murdoch) (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 55, p. 159, 1924), the genotype, from the Upper Pliocene of Castlecliff, and probably descended from it. Easily distinguished by fewer and stouter axials, 13 per whorl just before they die out, instead of about 18; interstices equal to or wider than ribs instead of narrower or sublinear. Spirals somewhat finer, less raised than in marshalli. Spire taller, considerably higher than aperture instead of subequal to it. Pillar considerably thicker.

Height, 55 mm.; of spire, 23 mm.; width, 24 mm.

Locality—22 fathoms, trawled between Otago Heads and Waikouwaiti, type and one other. Also two shells from 60 fathoms off Otago Heads, and one worn cast up shell, Taieri Beach.

Type in Finlay collection.

Perhaps all the Recent records of marshalli refer to this species.