Palmadusta diluculum, the day-break cowry, is a species of sea snail, a cowry, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.
Description These quite common schnecken reach on average of length, with a maximum size of and a minimum size of . The shape of these shells is somewhat pyriformly ovate, the basic coloration is brown or violet-chesnut, with two or more zones of several white dorsal zigzag-bands and distinctive dark spots on the white base. The extremities are edged with dark chesnut areas. In the living cowry the mantle is thin and smooth. The Palmadusta diluculum virginalis subspecies is smaller, the terminal spots are less accentuated to absent and dark spots on the base are totally missing.
Distribution
This species is widespread throughout the Western Indian Ocean along Sri Lanka, Aldabra, Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar, the Mascarene Basin, Mauritius, Mozambique, Réunion, the Seychelles, Somalia and Tanzania.
Habitat This demersal tropical cowry can be found in the intertidal shallow waters in sandy to muddy areas, under stones and blocks of dead coral.
Subspecies Palmadusta diluculum diluculum Reeve, 1845 Palmadusta diluculum virginalis Schilder & Schilder 1938
References
Felix Lorenz - Palmadusta diluculum and its close allies Reeve 1845: Conchologia Iconica: Shells of Molluscous Animals Vol. III Burgess, C.M. (1970). The Living Cowries. AS Barnes and Co, Ltd. Cranbury, New Jersey
External links
Biolib Sealifebase