Overview
Description: Shell long and narrow, whorls rounded, spire shorter than aperture. Whorls near tip of spire with rounded axial ribs, later whorls smooth. Aperture long and narrow, left side with 4 oblique plaits, right side smooth, base with broad notch.
Colour: Typically uniform cream or straw-coloured, some shells with addition of wavy axial bands.
Size: Adults (with thickened lip) 100-137 mm high.
Comparison of similar species living within its distribution/depth range: Alcithoe larochei is broader, lacks colour pattern and is often heavier. A. lutea has higher spire and is typically smaller (though size extremes overlap). A. fissurata is larger, thinner and has zigzag pattern. A. benthicola is thinner, has much higher spire, and attains much larger size.
Distribution: North-eastern North Island as far south as far as Cape Kidnappers (rarely south of Bay of Plenty). Restricted endemic.
Depth and habitat: Living at 256-435 m on mud.
Note: Although originally regarded as a subspecies (i.e. local population) of Alcithoe larochei, the two occur together in the Bay of Plenty, so they are in fact distinct species.
Holotype:
References/more information:
Bail, P. & Limpus, A. (2006) The Recent volutes of New Zealand, with a revision of the genus Alcithoe H. & A. Adams, 1853. A conchological iconography. Conchbooks, Hackenheim (p. 45).