Crassopleura maravignae (Bivona Ant. ex Bivona And. 1838)

Type of larval development: planktotrophic, inferred from multispiral protoconch.

Shell fusiform, up to 12 mm high, very solid, with a high spire and the body whorl less than half the total height. Protoconch markedly cyrtoconoid, with 2-3 smooth whorls. Teleoconch with 5-6 whorls; sculpture of numerous axial ribs, as broad as interspaces, opisthocline with a prosocline inflexion beneath the suture; the whole surface including this sculpture smooth and glossy without any spiral element. Last whorl with inflated profile, not narrowing at all around the siphonal canal; with axial ribs attenuated towards the base. Aperture ovate, distinctly thickened behind the outer lip in adults although without forming a delimited rib or varix. Edge of outer lip with a deep notch in the adapical part, then with a cutting edge and with a straight profile in lateral view. Siphonal canal short and broad. Columellar edge continued with the parietal edge, lined with a poorly developed callus. Parietal edge forming adapically a prominent callus which, in combimation with the notch of the outer lip, forms a well-defined exhalant canal. Colour brown, sometimes partitioned over the spire whorls by a spiral line separating darker and lighter areas; aperture dirty white inside.

Eastern Atlantic, from Galicia to Morocco, the Canary Is., Madeira and the Azores, usually in 20-100 m on bioclastic gravels; Mediterranean. Gorringe, Seine and Ampère seamounts, moderately common in 96-320 m.

Known from seamounts and knolls