Phyllonotus pomum

Phyllonotus pomum, the apple murex, is a species of large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Muricidae, the murex snails or rock snails.^[1]

Phyllonotus pomum
Phyllonotus pomum (Gmelin, 1791)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Neogastropoda
Family:	Muricidae
Genus:	Phyllonotus
Species:	P. pomum
Binomial name
Phyllonotus pomum (Gmelin, 1791)
Synonyms[1]
Chicoreus (Phyllonotus) pomum (Gmelin, 1791) Chicoreus pomum (Gmelin, 1791) Murex asperrimus Lamarck, 1822 Murex pomiformis Mørch, 1852 Murex pomiformis sensu Martin Locard, 1897 Murex pomum Gmelin, 1791 (basionym)

Description

The adult shell's dimensions range from 44 mm to 133 mm.

Original description of Lovell Augustus Reeve (published 1843):

The shell is fusiformly oblong, thick, solid, very rough throughout, transversely conspicuously ridged, tuberculated between the varices; three-varicose, varices tuberculated with a complicated mass of laminae; fulvous or reddish brown, columella and interior of the aperture ochraceous yellow, columellar lip slightly wrinkled, edge erected, vividly stained, especially at the upper part, with very black brown; outer lip strongly toothed, ornamented with three black-brown spots; canal rather short, compressed, recurved."^[2]

Distribution

This species occurs in the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Lesser Antilles; in the Atlantic Ocean between North Carolina and Northern Brazil.