Calliotrochus marmoreus

Lore & Background

The shell of Calliotrochus marmoreus attains a height and diameter of 6 mm. It is thin, smooth, shining, and narrowly perforate, with a globose-turbinate shape. The coloration is marbled and mottled with various shades of olive, brown, and pinkish, usually showing dots of white, or spiral lines of white and pink or brown articulated. The conical spire is short with a minute, acute apex, and the sutures are impressed. The about five whorls are rounded, and the body whorl is large, convex below, and indented around the narrow white umbilicus. The oblique aperture is rounded-oval, with a very thin layer of bluish iridescent nacre within. The outer, basal, and columella margins are well curved, thin, simple, and converging and united across the parietal wall by a thin layer of callus.

Reader's Guide

This species was originally described by Pease in 1861 based on specimens from the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). Its distribution, as recorded in the source article, spans the Red Sea, tropical Indo-Pacific, Hawaii, and Queensland, Australia. The shell's distinctive marbled pattern and small size make it a recognizable member of the Trochidae family. The species has been referenced in multiple malacological works, including those by Garrett, Deshayes, Hedley, Preston, Iredale, Ladd, Kilburn, Kay, Herbert, and Dekker & Orlin, indicating sustained scientific interest. Herbert's 1998 revision of the genus Calliotrochus provides a modern taxonomic framework for this snail. The species is listed in the World Register of Marine Species, confirming its accepted taxonomic status. Its presence across a wide geographic range from the Red Sea to Hawaii and Australia suggests a broad ecological tolerance within tropical marine environments.

Did You Know?

• The shell height and diameter are both 6 mm.
• The shell has a very thin layer of bluish iridescent nacre inside the aperture.
• The shell is described as marbled and mottled with olive, brown, and pinkish colors.