Lotoria lotoria

Lotoria lotoria, common name the black-spotted snail or washing bath triton, is a species of predatory sea snail, a tropical marine gastropod mollusc in the family Cymatiidae. This species was previously known as Cymatium lotorium.^[2]

Lotoria lotoria Temporal range: Eocene - Recent PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
A shell of Lotoria lotoria with the periostracum removed
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Littorinimorpha
Family:	Cymatiidae
Genus:	Lotoria
Species:	L. lotoria
Binomial name
Lotoria lotoria (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
Cymatium (Lotoria) lotorium (Linnaeus, 1758) Cymatium lotorium (Linnaeus, 1758) Cymatium rhinoceros P.F. Röding, 1798[1] Murex lotorium Linnaeus, 1758 Triton distortum Lamarck, 1816

Fossil records

Fossil shell of Lotoria lotoria from Pliocene of Italy

Fossils from this family date back to the Eocene (age range: from 55.8 to 0.012 million years ago).^[3]

Description

Shells of Lotoria lotoria can reach a size of 90–160 millimetres (3.5–6.3 in).^[4][5]

The shell is somewhat fusiformly turreted, thick, solid, distorted at the lower part, with four or five varices. The spire is rude and rather obtuse. The whorls are angulated at the upper part, obsoletely depressly ribbed with the ribs crenulated. The shell is reddish yellow, ornamented above the aperture and upon the varices between the ribs with blackish brown. The columella is more or less obsoletely plaited. The outer lip is denticulated. The siphonal canal is short and broad.^[6]

Distribution

This species of marine snail lives in the tropical Indo-Pacific oceans,^[5][7] the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Marquesas Islands and off Australia (Queensland)

Habitat

Lotoria lotoria is quite common in coral reefs in Australia and the Indian Ocean.