Erronea errones | |
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Two shells of Erronea errones, with and without brown blotch | |
Scientific classification
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Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Gastropoda |
Subclass: | Caenogastropoda |
Order: | Littorinimorpha |
Family: | Cypraeidae |
Genus: | Erronea |
Species: | E. errones
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Binomial name | |
Erronea errones |
Erronea errones, the wandering cowry or erroneous cowry, is a species of sea snail, a cowry, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries. [1]
These very common shells reach on average 20–28 millimetres (0.79–1.10 in) of length, with a maximum size of 45 millimetres (1.8 in) and a minimum size of 13 millimetres (0.51 in). The dorsum is usually pale brown or greenish, with very variable patterns of darker greenish trasversal bands or spots. The base and the teeth of the aperture are white. In the living cowries the papillose greenish mantle grants the camouflage.
This species is distributed in the East Indian Ocean along South India, Andaman Islands, Madagascar and Tanzania, as well in West Pacific Ocean along Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, New Caledonia, Samoa and Australia.
These cowries live in shallow tropical waters at low tide, usually under rocks or stones, feeding on algae.
Media related to
Erronea errones at Wikimedia Commons