Pustularia cicercula

Pustularia cicercula is a species of sea snail, a cowry, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.^[1]

Pustularia cicercula
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Littorinimorpha
Family:	Cypraeidae
Genus:	Pustularia
Species:	P. cicercula
Binomial name
Pustularia cicercula (Linnaeus, 1758
Synonyms[1]
Cypraea cicercula Linnaeus, 1758 Pustularia (Pustularia) cicercula (Linnaeus, 1758)

Subspecies

The following subspecies are recognized :^[1]

• Pustularia cicercula cicercula (Linnaeus, 1758)
• Pustularia cicercula takahashii Moretzsohn, 2007
• Pustularia cicercula tricornis (Jousseaume, 1874)
• Pustularia cicercula tuamotensis Lorenz, 1999
• Pustularia cicercula avrilae Heiman, 2009: synonym of Pustularia cicercula tuamotensis Lorenz, 1999
• Pustularia cicercula lienardi (Jousseaume, 1874): synonym of Pustularia cicercula tricornis (Jousseaume, 1874)

Description

The length of the shell attains 20.3 mm, lateral diameter 13.6 mm, dorsoventral diameter 11.8 mm

The shell is highly inflated, its extremities produced and slightly upturned; the granulose dorsal surface bears a shallow central crease.^[2]

Distribution

This species and its subspecies occur in the Red Sea and in the Indian Ocean off Kenya, the Mascarene Basin, Mauritius, Réunion and Tanzania.

A single fossil of the type species was collected from the post-Tertiary limestones of the New Hebrides.