Relevant Synonyms - Misidentification -  photo: G. Buzzuro - E. Greppi

SHORT DESCRIPTION Shell elongated, high spired, tapering, smooth and glossy, with 10 nearly flat whorls. Body whorl rounded. Aperture piriform, with outer lip showing a convex profile when seen from the side, not thickened but with a rounded edge. color : translucent with numerous light brown dots, clustering into loose flames on the spire and body whorls; outer lip and columella tinged with light brown. Apical whorls milky white. common size : 2.5 mm. DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS This species is distinguished from the native Sticteulima jeffreysiana (Brusina, 1869) by having a much sharper apex, a rounded anterior edge of the aperture (protruding from the profile of the body whorl in jeffreysiana) and pattern of small dots instead of loose brown flames. Most other Eulimids in the area are white, and those that have a color ed shell have a very different pattern. BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY All Eulimids are obligate parasites on Echinoderms. The host for this particular species is not known but other species of Sticteulima are known to live on Ophiurids (A. Warén, pers. comm.). habitat : unknown.

1st Mediterranean record Southern Turkey, 1994 [1989]. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide: Indo-Pacific, but cannot be established accurately due to taxonomic uncertainties. Mediterranean: recorded first from Aydincik, southern Turkey in 1989 (Tringali, 1994); later from Cyprus (Buzzurro and Greppi, 1997). ESTABLISHMENT SUCCESS Rare. speculated reasons for success : - MODE OF INTRODUCTION Unknown. IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS None.

KEY REFERENCES Buzzurro G. and Greppi E., 1996. The lessepsian molluscs of Tasuçu (South East Turkey). La Conchiglia, 279 (suppl.): 3-22 (n° 280, errata p. 4). Tringali L., 1994. Levant Sea: A new Lessepsian host of the genus Sticteulima F.C. Laseron, 1955. La Conchiglia, 273: 57-58.   FEEDBACK / COMMENTS TO AUTHORS

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