Melanella amblytera is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Eulimidae. The species is one of many species known to exist within the genus, Melanella.
Description The length of the shell attains 5.5 mm, its diameter 0.6 mm.
(Original description) The white shell is elongate, and subfusiform, with a long, evenly tapered, nearly straight spire and a produced body whorl that is evenly rounded. The sutures are distinct but scarcely impressed and are only slightly oblique. The nearly straight outline of the spire results from the relatively flat whorls. The shell comprises up to nine whorls in the largest specimen, in addition to a relatively large, mammiform apical whorl.
The aperture is elongate-ovate, obtusely rounded, slightly expanded anteriorly, and acute posteriorly. In fully mature specimens, the anterior portion of the outer lip and the columellar margin may become thickened. The surface is smooth and brilliantly polished. Verrill A.E. and Bush K.J. (1900). Additions to the marine Mollusca of the Bermudas. Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 10: 513-544
Distribution This species occurs in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Caribbean Sea; also in the tropical Northwestern Atlantic: Floridian, Bermuda, Bahamian, Southern Caribbean; tropical Southwestern Atlantic: Eastern Brazil.
References
Rosenberg, G., F. Moretzsohn, and E. F. García. 2009. Gastropoda (Mollusca) of the Gulf of Mexico, Pp. 579–699 in Felder, D.L. and D.K. Camp (eds.), Gulf of Mexico–Origins, Waters, and Biota. Biodiversity. Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas.
External links Souza L.S. de & Pimenta A.D. (2019). Taxonomy of littoral Melanella (Gastropoda: Eulimidae) from Brazil, with comments on the Eulima described by Verrill and Bush (1900). Marine Biodiversity. 49(1): 425-442 jbooza:image of Melanella amblytera