Relevant Synonyms - Misidentification -  drawing: Tuvia Kurz

SHORT DESCRIPTION Shell high-spired, about three times as long as wide, of 9-11 whorls. Sculpture on spire whorls of a spiral row of knobs forming a very weak keel on the mid-whorl, fine spiral cords adapically between this and the suture, and coarser, granulose spiral cords on the abapical part and on body whorl. Body whorl somewhat constricted, usually with a poorly developed varix. A short, narrow and deeply impressed siphonal canal. color : whitish with an irregular pattern of dark brown flames and mottles, interrupted on the spiral row of knobs. common size : 12-20 mm. DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS C. egenum is a rather featureless cerithid species, but may be distinguished from the smaller native species of Cerithium by the sculpture of the spiral cords, which are shiny and granulose, and by the more closed siphonal canal. BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY The protoconch of 2.5 whorls (usually eroded in the adult) indicates planktotrophic larval phase (Houbrick, 1992). habitat : in the Indo-Pacific, this species lives in sand pockets of intertidal or very shallow pools of rocky shores.

1st Mediterranean record Israel, 2001 [1971]. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide: Indo-Pacific, with a broad range from Polynesia to the Red Sea. Mediterranean: four different records from Israel from 1971 to 1993: Haifa 1971, dredged at 55 m depth by L. Fishelson (Mienis, 2001a). ESTABLISHMENT SUCCESS Only known from the four mentioned records. speculated reasons for success : - MODE OF INTRODUCTION Possibly via the Suez Canal. IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS None.

KEY REFERENCES Houbrick R.S., 1992. Monograph of the genus Cerithium Bruguière in the Indo-Pacific (Cerithiidae: Prosobranchia). Smithsonian contributions to Zoology, 510: 1-211 [C. egenum pp. 86-90]. Mienis H.K., 2001a. Mariene Mollusken uit het Oostelijk deel van de Middellandse zee. 6. De eerste vondsten van Cerithium egenum. Spirula - Correspondentieblad van de Nederlandse Malacologische Vereniging, 323: 119.   FEEDBACK / COMMENTS TO AUTHORS

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