Palmadusta asellus

Palmadusta asellus is a species of sea snail, a cowry, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.^[1]

Palmadusta asellus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Littorinimorpha
Family:	Cypraeidae
Genus:	Palmadusta
Species:	P. asellus
Binomial name
Palmadusta asellus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Subspecies
See text
Synonyms[1]
Cypraea asellus Linnaeus, 1758 (basionym)

Description

Palmadusta asellus has a shell reaching a length of about 2.8 centimetres (1.1 in). The shells are white with three large brown transversal bands on the upper surface. The brown mantle shows several whitish spots. In the living cowry it covers almost entirely the shells.

Subspecies

Palmadusta asellus is divided into the following subspecies:

• Palmadusta asellus asellus (Linnaeus, 1758)
• Palmadusta asellus bitaeniata (Geret, 1903)
• Palmadusta asellus latefasciata Schilder, 1930
• Palmadusta asellus vespacea (Melvill, 1905)

Distribution

This species is distributed in the seas along Aldabra, Chagos, the Comores, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, the Red Sea, Réunion, the Seychelles and Tanzania.