Xymene pulcherrimus is a species of small predatory sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Muricidae, the rock snails or murex snails.

Distribution

This murex species is endemic to the east coast of the South Island, and the Chatham Islands, of New Zealand.

Habitat

This snail is found at depths of about 110 m.

Shell description

The shell is lightly built, slender, with squarish interspaces and bicarinate spire-whorls. The protoconch is smooth and rounded without a peripheral keel.

Coloration is creamy-buff, often with a broad subperipheral reddish-brown spiral band, and the siphonal canal is similarly coloured.

Height is up to 12 mm, and width up to 5.75 mm. An extra large shell has been recorded at height 18.5 mm.

References

• Powell A W B, New Zealand Mollusca, William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979 ISBN 0-00-216906-1