Plicopurpura patula

Plicopurpura patula is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Muricidae, the murex snails or rock snails.^[1]

Plicopurpura patula
A shell of Plicopurpura patula
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Neogastropoda
Family:	Muricidae
Genus:	Plicopurpura
Species:	P. patula
Binomial name
Plicopurpura patula (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms[1]
Buccinum patulum Linnaeus, 1758

Description

Distribution

The widemouth rockshell or wide-mouthed purpura is a tropical Western Atlantic species.^[2][3] Its biogeographical distribution range extends along the Atlantic coast of America from Florida to Trinidade^{[clarification needed]}, and includes the Caribbean Sea.^[4][5] Individuals are found in the intertidal splash zones on hard rocky shorelines facing regular wave action. Sporadically, the species may occur in the NE Atlantic, where it was first recorded in 2012 in the Atlantic coast of North Spain.^[6] However, currently there are no evidences that the widemouth rockshell forms stable populations in the NE Atlantic.^[7]

References

1. Plicopurpura patula (Linnaeus, 1758). Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 24 April 2010.
2. William J. Clench (1943). The genera Purpura and Thais in the Western Atlantic. Johnsonia, 2 (23): 61–91.
3. Silvard P. Kool (1993). Phylogenetic analysis of the Rapaninae (Neogastropoda: Muricidae). Malacologia, 35 (2): 155–259.
4. R. Tucker Abbott, Percy A. Morris (2001). A Field Guide to Shells. Atlantic and Gulf Coasts and the West Indies. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston 2001. p. 214.
5. Eugene Herbert Kaplan (1999). A Field Guide to Southeastern and Caribbean Seashores. Cape Hatteras to the Gulf Coast, Florida, and the Caribbean. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston. pp. 198, 239.
6. Andrés Arias, Rafael Bañon, Hannelore Paxton und Nuria Anadón (2012). Tropicalización y meridionalización en el medio marino del NO-N de la península ibérica. In P. Ríos, L. A. Suárez & J. Cristobo (eds), "Abstractbook of the XVIII Iberian Symposium of studies in marine biology (Libro de resúmenes del XVIII Simposio ibérico de estudios de biologia marina)". Centro Oceanográfico de Gijón (Instituto Español de Oceanografía), Gijón, Spain, September 2014
7. Sánchez, O., López, R., Borrell, Y. J. & Arias, A. (2021). First record of Plicopurpura patula (Gastropoda: Muricidae) in European waters: new evidence to the 'tropicalization' of the Bay of Biscay or human assisted arrival? In: Arias, A., Ríos, P., Paxton, H., Sánchez, O., Acuña, J. L., Álvarez, A., Manjón-Cabeza, M. E. & Cristobo, J. (eds) "Proceedings of the XVII International Symposium on Oceanography of the Bay of Biscay (ISOBAY 17)". University of Oviedo, Oviedo 2021, ISBN 978-84-18482-20-5, p. 123.