Lettered olive
| Lettered olive | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Shell of the lettered olive | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Order: | Neogastropoda |
| (unranked): | clade Caenogastropoda clade Hypsogastropoda clade Neogastropoda |
| Superfamily: | Olivoidea |
| Family: | Olividae |
| Subfamily: | Olivinae |
| Genus: | Oliva |
| Species: | O. sayana |
| Binomial name | |
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Oliva sayana Ravenel, 1834 |
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| Synonyms | |
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Oliva litterata Lamarck, 1811 |
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Oliva litterata Lamarck, 1811
Strephona litterata (Lamarck, 1811)
Oliva citrina C. W. Johnson, 1911
Oliva maya Petuch & Sargent, 1986
Oliva contoyensis Petuch, 1988
The lettered olive, Oliva sayana, is a species of large predatory sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Olividae, the olive shells, olive snails, or olives.
Oliva sayana contains the following subspecies:
The species' range is from North Carolina to Florida and the Gulf states of North America, including Louisiana and Texas; It also occurs in Mexico, including Campeche State, Yucatán State and Quintana Roo, and in Surya lanka, AP, India and may also occur in Brazil.
The lettered olive typically lives in near-shore waters, on shallow sand flats near inlets. The empty shell is occasionally, or sometimes commonly, washed up onto ocean beaches.
The shell of this species can be about 6 cm (2 1⁄4 in) long (maximum reported size reaches 9.1 cm). It is a smooth, shiny, cylindrical-shaped shell with a short spire. The aperture is narrow and extending almost the length of shell, continuing around the bottom and ending in a notch on the other side. The suture is V-cut and deep. The lower part of the whorl is just above where the suture extends outward and then at a sharp shoulder drops into the suture.
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