Data: Here are a couple of images of a Xenophora that perhaps you might be able to identify as a mystery shell. It is listed on a dealer site as Xenophora minuta from the East China Sea at over 200 meters deep. Here are a couple of pictures. It may be a synonym or a form. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you, Phil

Send Ideas to: Phil

Identified:

Discussions:

• Never heard of "Xenophora minuta", but this looks to me like Xenophora cerea (Reeve, 1845)....
  Paul M.

• Paul, I too have never heard of X. minut. I have to agree with your X. cerea, with one problem, the bivalves as attachments. X. cerea are mostly stone collectors or coarl. A better understanding of the shell configuration under the attachments and a description of the under carriage as well would make for a better ID. The bivalves and swirling stained carriage and seemingly thin shell could also lend toward a X. pallidula. A better description of the complete shell would be needed. ...Harry B.

• Xenophora minuta is described on page 46 of SeaShells of China. I do not have access to the book so I have not seen the description. It is from China Press. ...Phil

• For me it is a Xenophora Pallidula Reeve 1842. I had in the recent past the same specimen .
  A nice day - All the best
  Philippe http://www.shellspassion.com

• I've got a copy of "Recent Xenophoridae" by Kreipl and Alf, published in 1999 by ConchBooks. Not seeing minuta anywhere in it. Under genus Xenophora: conchyliophora, conchyliophora f. robusta, senagalensis, crispa, neozelanica neozelanica, neozelanica kermadecensis, peroniania kondoi, tenuis, flindersi flindersi, pallidula, corrugata, granulosa, mekranensis konoi, peroniana peroniana, cerea, japonica, solarioides solarioides
  No minuta under Onustus or Stellaria. ...Ellen B.

• p.46 - Xenophora minuta Qi et Ma, 1986
  Shell small, 14 mm in height, 26 in width, conical, thin, whorls about 8, foreign objects large, covering nearly all the dorsal surface, colour white, brown on apical parts; base flat, concave, yellowish-brown in colour, with fine radial granular striae around the umbilicus, umbilicus narrow, deep, covered by reflexed callous of inner lip in part, peripheral thick, angulation rounded, aperture wide ovate, oblique, outer and inner lips simple, operculum corneous. Distribution: East and South China Seas.
  Ecology: Off shores on sandy or muddy bottom of 12.5-210 m depth. Uncommon.
  Figure: pl.20c
  Qui ZY, Ma XT 1986, Studies on Chninese species of Xenophoridae (Mollusca:
  Gastropoda). Trans Chinese Soc Malacol, 2: 1-8, pl.1