Epitonium lyra
(Sowerby II, 1844)
Description:
Dimensions range from 6.7 mm - 94.8 mm high and 3.38 mm - 15 mm wide.
Width to height ratio: 0.5:1 ~ 0.16:1
Shell: broadly pyramidal, stout; thin, fragile; minute to large. Exterior colour very pale brown to dull white, with two bands of deeper or paler brown, costae white. About 9 whorls, inflated, rounded, connected; teleoconch with ~6 whorls relatively low spire, inflated. Spire relatively low, convex. Suture deep. Umbilicate: narrow, moderate. Approximately 37 - 45 costae on the body whorl. Costae are prosocline, low, thin and sharp, curving into the umbilicus. Costae not alinged; not peaked; reflexed crests; not continuous across the suture. Intercostal spaces wth minute spiral striae. Aperture oblong-ovate, ear-shaped; peristome complete, thin, simple.
Distribution:
Indo-West Pacific; Amani O-shima to Okinawa, Japan; East China Sea, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Fiji; Port Douglas to Capricorn Bunker Group Queensland, Australia; Red Sea, Mozambique
Habitat:
intertidal to 522m (Schepman 1909: 224), sand, stony substrate
Etymology:
from lyra [latin] = lyre or lute, in possible reference to the shell's costae resembling the strings of a lyre
Type Material:
Syntype: (BM(NH) 1979162) for Epitonium lyra (Sowerby II, 1844) - Type Locality: from Isle of Masbate, Philippines, on the reefs; the only undamaged shell is here designated lectotype.. [Kilburn, R.N, 1985]
Lectotype: NHMUK 1979162/1-3 (lectotype, paralectotypes) selected by Kilburn (1985: 309). for Epitonium lyra (Sowerby II, 1844) - Type Locality: Masbate Island, Philippines.. [Brown, L. & Neville, B.D., 2015]
Type not located. [as Scalaria vestalis Hinds, 1844:] - Type Locality: New Guinea, seven fms [=13 m], among mud.. [Brown, L. & Neville, B.D., 2015]
Type not listed in source data for Epitonium lyra (Sowerby II, 1844) - Type Locality: China Sea. [Higo, S., Callomon, P. & Goto, Y., 1999]
Sowerby, G. B. II. (1844). pp: xxxii. Plate xxxiii. Fig. 38-39.
Distribution
as listed in source literature
Sowerby, G. B. II. (1873).
Shown in text as Scalara vestalis
Plate xxxiv. Fig. 97.
was Sc.vestalis
pp: 93.
38. Sc. vestalis. (pi. xxxiv f. 97.) Hinds. Zool. Proc. 1843.
Sowerby, G. B. II. (1844).
Shown in text as Scalaria lyra
pp: xxxii. Plate xxxiii. Fig. 38-39.
pp: 98.
original description
pp: 90.
original description
Sowerby, G. B. II. (1873).
Shown in text as SCALARIA VESTALIS.
Plate xiii. Fig. 101.
Sowerby, G. B. II. (1873).
Plate iv. Fig. 23.
Species 23. (Mus. Brit.)
SCALARIA LYRA.
Tryon, G.W. (1879).
Plate 12. Fig. 69.
pp: 58.
Tryon, G.W. (1887).
Shown in text as Scalaria vestalis Hinds, 1844
Plate 14. Fig. 37.
Clessin, S. (1897).
Plate 6. Fig. 4.
pp: 22.
ventricose, rather short, pale tawny, with two tawny spiral bands, with extremely narrow, lamellar varices; very densely ridged; whorls rounded, contiguous; aperture ear-shaped.
Clessin, S. (1897).
Shown in text as Scalaria vestalis Hindson
Plate 13. Fig. 8.
pp: 52.
Shell small, whitish with a bluish tinge, shortly pyramidal; spirally very finely striated; whorls rounded; varices simple, minute; aperture large, ovate, rather broad.
Schepman, M.M. (1909).
pp: 224.
Kaicher, S.D. (1980).
Card #: EP1-2341.
USNM: 343441
Kilburn, R.N (1985).
122, Lectotype, BM(NH) 1979162
21,2 x 13 mm;
123, NM J5476,
Benguera Is., 14,5 x 9,1 mm.
Wilson, B.R. (1993).
pp: 379. Plate 44. Fig. 28.
Nakayama, T. (2003).
