Oliva barbadensis is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Olividae, the olives.
Description Original description: "Shell of medium size for subgenus, heavy, thickened, fusiform in shape, body somewhat inflated, wider at midsection than at shoulder; spire elevated, protracted; color yellow to yellow-tan, overlaid with variable amounts of fine brown triangles in a netted pattern; some specimens with large zig-zag areas of bright yellow; body whorl with two bands of darker brown zig-zags; spire whorls with tan-colored callus; shoulder and edge of suture with pale blue patches, corresponding to sutural scalloping pattern; protoconch large; interior of aperture white; columellar area white with 18 to 25 thin plicae.
Size: approximately 40 to 50 mm. in length: rarely to 60+ mm.
Holotype: USNM. 841427, length 50 mm, width 21 mm, trawled from 200 meters depth off St. James, Barbados Island, by research vessel.
Discussion: Oliva barbadensis is closest to Oliva drangai from Tobago, but differs in being a larger, more inflated species, and by having a much darker and more elaborate color pattern."Petuch & Sargent, 1986-Atlas of the living olive shells of the world, page 126: (Plate 20, Figures 19, 20, 21, 22) Publ: CERF
Distribution Locus typicus: off West coast of Barbados, Lesser Antilles: at 500 ft. depths.
"Endemic to Barbados, where it is common at 100 to 160 meters depth, off the west coast of the island."Petuch & Sargent, 1986-Atlas of the living olive shells of the world, page 126: (Plate 20, Figures 19, 20, 21, 22) Publ: CERF
This marine species occurs off French Guiana.
Etymology "Named for Barbados Island, West Indies, the type locality."Petuch & Sargent, 1986-Atlas of the living olive shells of the world, page 126: (Plate 20, Figures 19, 20, 21, 22) Publ: CERF
Habitat "This new species is one of the deepest-dwelling olives in the western Atlantic and is known only from deep water surrounding the Barbados seamount."Petuch & Sargent, 1986-Atlas of the living olive shells of the world, page 126: (Plate 20, Figures 19, 20, 21, 22) Publ: CERF This carnivorous, scavenging Olive responds readily to baited traps.
References
Paulmier G., 2014. La famille des Olividae Latreille, 1825 (Neogastropoda). Le genre Oliva Bruguière, 1789, aux Antilles et en Guyane françaises. Description de Oliva lilacea nov. sp. Bulletin de la Société Linnéenne de Bordeaux 41(4) "2013": 437-454, sér. 148, nouvelle série