Common Egg Cowrie

Ovula ovum

''Ovula ovum'', common name the common egg cowrie, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Ovulidae, the ovulids, cowry allies or false cowries.{{WRMS species|216904|''Ovula ovum'' |||WoRMS . Ovula ovum . Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=216904 on 5 June 2010}}
Common Egg Cowries A pair of Egg Cowries - Heniochus diphreutes. They have smooth and shiny shells and black coloured mantel and in this pictures, with yellow spots on the black mantel. Common Egg Cowrie,Geotagged,Mozambique,Ovula ovum,Ponta do Ouro,Summer

Appearance

The shells of these quite common cowries reach on average 65–70 millimetres of length, with a minimum size of 50 millimetres and a maximum size of 120 millimetres . They are egg-shaped . The surface of the shell is smooth, shiny and completely snow white, with a dark reddish-purple interior, visible through the wide and long aperture, which bears teeth on one side only. In the living cowries the mantle is black, with a pattern of small white spots in adults, while juveniles resemble some toxic nudibranchs of the genus ''Phyllidia'' owing to their orange yellow sensorial papillae. The lateral flaps of the mantle usually hide completely the white surface, but the mantle is quickly retracted into the shell opening when the cowry is disturbed.
Egg Cowries Common Egg Cowries - Ovula ovum, they have black mantle with spots of whites or gold Common Egg Cowrie,Geotagged,Indonesia,Ovula ovum,Winter

Distribution

This species is distributed in the Red Sea and in the Indian Ocean along East Africa and in Western and Central Pacific Ocean .
Common egg cowrie (Ovula_ovum) Cabilao, Oct 7, 2012 The common egg cowrie, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Ovulidae, the ovulids, cowry allies or false cowries. The shells of these quite common cowries reach on average 65–70 millimetres (2.6–2.8 in) of length, with a minimum size of 50 millimetres (2.0 in) and a maximum size of 120 millimetres (4.7 in). They are egg-shaped. The surface of the shell is smooth, shiny and completely snow white, with a dark reddish-purple interior, visible through the wide and long aperture, which bears teeth on one side only. In the living cowries the mantle is black, with a pattern of small white spots in adults, while juveniles resemble some toxic nudibranchs of the genus Phyllidia owing to their orange yellow sensorial papillae. The lateral flaps of the mantle usually hide completely the white surface, but the mantle is quickly retracted into the shell opening when the cowry is disturbed. Habitat: This species is distributed in the Red Sea and in the Indian Ocean along East Africa and in Western and Central Pacific Ocean. Found in tropical reef in shallow waters at 2–20 metres (6 ft 7 in–65 ft 7 in) of depth, usually on algae or soft corals, mainly feeding on Alcyonarian colonies (Leather Coral, genus Sarcophyton and Sinularia sp., Alcyoniidae). Geotagged,Ovula ovum,Philippines

Habitat

''Ovula ovum'' lives in tropical reef in shallow waters at 2–20 metres of depth, usually on algae or soft corals, mainly feeding on Alcyonarian colonies .

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionMollusca
ClassGastropoda
OrderLittorinimorpha
FamilyOvulidae
GenusOvula
SpeciesO. ovum
Photographed in
Indonesia
Mozambique
Philippines