Colus gracilis

Colus gracilis is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Buccinidae, the true whelks and the like.^[1]

Colus gracilis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Neogastropoda
Family:	Colidae
Genus:	Colus
Species:	C. gracilis
Binomial name
Colus gracilis (da Costa, 1778)
Synonyms
Buccinum gracile da Costa, 1778 Colus glaber (Verkrüzen in Kobelt, 1876) Fusus gracilis (da Costa, 1778) Fusus gracilis var. belliana Jordan, 1890 Fusus gracilis var. convoluta Jeffreys, 1867 Fusus gracilis var. coulsoni Jordan, 1890 Fusus listeri Jonas, 1846 Neptunia gracilis (da Costa, 1778) Neptunia gracilis var. major Locard, 1896 Neptunia nicolloni Locard, 1891 Sipho glaber Verkrüzen in Kobelt, 1876 Sipho gracilis (da Costa, 1778) Sipho gracilis var. glabra Verkrüzen in Kobelt, 1876 Sipho togatus var. frielei Harmer, 1914 Sipho turgidulus var. minor Thorson, 1944 Tritonium islandicum var. striata Middendorff, 1849

Description

A smooth form with flatter whorls, 40 to 100 mm in length, but a highly variable species that occurs in several morphologically different geographical and bathymetrical forms; these forms may look identical over large areas, then give an impression that several near species are involved.^[2]

Distribution

{It lives on sand to mud bottoms, between 50 and 1500 m, from northern Norway to Portugal. A species frequently accidentally fished by fishing trap fishermen from the Channel and the Bay of Biscay, such as those from the port of Conquet in Brittany; this fishing trap fishery is the only one that brings this difficultly accessible species back to land. See Bouchet and Waren 1985. See also European Seashells Vol.1, from Poppe and Goto 1991.}