Biology:Lettered olive

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Short description: Species of gastropod

Lettered olive
Oliva sayana 02.JPG
Scientific classification edit
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Caenogastropoda
Order: Neogastropoda
Family: Olividae
Subfamily: Olivinae
Genus: Americoliva
Species:
A. sayana
Binomial name
Americoliva sayana
(Ravenel, 1834)
Synonyms[1][2]
  • Oliva maya Oliva citrina
  • C. W. Johnson, 1911 Petuch, 1988
  • Petuch & Sargent, 1986 Oliva sayana
  • Oliva litterata Ravenel, 1834
  • Oliva contoyensis Lamarck, 1811
  • (Lamarck, 1811) Strephona litterata

The lettered olive, Americoliva sayana, is a species of large predatory sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Olividae, the olive shells, olive snails, or olives.[3] It is sometimes referred to as Oliva sayana.[1]

Subspecies

(As of April 2010), the lettered olive contains the following accepted subspecies:[4]

  • Oliva sayana sarasotensis Petuch & Sargent, 1986
  • Oliva sayana sayana Ravenel, 1834
  • Oliva sayana texana Petuch & Sargent, 1986

Distribution

The species' range is from North Carolina to Florida, the Gulf states of North America, including Louisiana and Texas ; and further south to the east coast of Mexico, including Campeche State, Yucatán State and Quintana Roo.[2][5] It may also occur in Brazil .[citation needed]

Habitat

The lettered olive typically lives in near-shore waters, on shallow sand flats near inlets. The empty shell is occasionally, or sometimes commonly, washed up onto ocean beaches.[citation needed]

Fossil specimen from the Pliocene
Shells
Shells

Shell description

The shell of this species can be about 6 cm (2 14 in) long (maximum reported size reaches 9.1 cm[2]). It is a smooth, shiny, cylindrical-shaped shell with a short spire. The aperture is narrow and extending almost the length of shell, continuing around the bottom and ending in a notch on the other side. The suture is V-cut and deep. The lower part of the whorl is just above where the suture extends outward and then at a sharp shoulder drops into the suture.

The shell coloration can vary from cream to a greyish exterior with reddish-brown zigzag markings. The common name of this species is derived from the darker surface markings that sometimes resemble letters.

Life habits

Like all olives, the lettered olive is a carnivore: it captures bivalves and small crustaceans with its foot and takes them below the sand surface to digest.[6]

Its presence is sometimes detected at very low tides by the trails it leaves when it crawls below the surface on semi-exposed sand flats.[6]

Females lay floating, round egg capsules that are often found in beach drift. Young are free swimming.[6]

Human use

Colonists and early Native Americans made jewelry from these shells.[6]

The lettered olive is the state shell of South Carolina.[6]

References

Wikidata ☰ {{{from}}} entry