Alvania lactea is a species of small sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk or micromollusk in the family Rissoidae.
Description The length of the shell varies between 4 mm and 8 mm.
The thin shell is subtranslucid to opaque. It is feebly longitudinally and spirally closely costellate. The color is yellowish white or white. The shell contains 5-6, subconvex whorls with linear suture. The outer lip is scarcely thickened externally.G.W. Tryon (1884), Manual of conchology, structural and systematic : with illustrations of the species; Academy of Natural Sciences ser. 1, vol. 9
Distribution This species occurs in the North Sea; also off Morocco and in the Black Sea; in the Mediterranean Sea off Greece.
Fossils were found in Pleistocene-Pliocene strata in the Netherlands and Pleistocene strata near Saint-Malo, France.
References
Backeljau, T. (1986). Lijst van de recente mariene mollusken van België [List of the recent marine molluscs of Belgium]. Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen: Brussels, Belgium. 106 pp. Gofas, S.; Le Renard, J.; Bouchet, P. (2001). Mollusca, in: Costello, M.J. et al. (Ed.) (2001). European register of marine species: a check-list of the marine species in Europe and a bibliography of guides to their identification. Collection Patrimoines Naturels, 50: pp. 180–213 Muller, Y. (2004). Faune et flore du littoral du Nord, du Pas-de-Calais et de la Belgique: inventaire. [Coastal fauna and flora of the Nord, Pas-de-Calais and Belgium: inventory]. Commission Régionale de Biologie Région Nord Pas-de-Calais: France. 307 pp Kantor Yu.I. & Sysoev A.V. (2006) Marine and brackish water Gastropoda of Russia and adjacent countries: an illustrated catalogue. Moscow: KMK Scientific Press. 372 pp. + 140 pls. (BeRMS 2020) Bio-environmental research group; Institute of Agricultural and Fisheries research (ILVO), Belgium; (2016): Macrobenthos monitoring in function of aggregate extraction activities in the Belgian part of the North Sea
External links Michaud, A. L. G. (1830). Description de plusieurs espèces de coquilles du genre Rissoa. Lyon: Perrin. 19 pp., 1 pl Monterosato, T. A. di. (1889). Coquilles marines marocaines. Journal de Conchyliologie. 37(1): 20-40 (2 May 1889); 37(2): 112-121 Thanasis Manousis, The Marine Mollusca of Greece: an up-to-date, systematic catalogue, documented with bibliographic and pictorial references Garilli V. 2008. On some Neogene to Recent species related to Galeodina Monterosato, 1884, Galeodinopsis Sacco, 1895, and Massotia Bucquoy, Dautzenberg, and Dollfus, 1884 (Caenogastropoda: Rissoidae) with the description of two new Alvania species from the Mediterranean Pleistocene. The Nautilus, 122(1): 19–51