Relevant Synonyms - Misidentification -  photo: S. Gofas / Coll. B. Galil

SHORT DESCRIPTION Shell slender, nearly four times as long as broad, with 10-12 whorls. Protoconch of four smooth whorls, often broken off. Teleoconch of 7-8 whorls with a sculpture of three spiral cords intersecting with axial folds to form a dense series of pearl-like knobs. Body whorl with one more spiral cord extending from the suture and a thickening adjacent to the columella. Aperture ovate, with a broadly open, very short but deeply incised siphonal canal. color : whitish to yellowish, with the subsutural cord and the additional cord of the body whorl dark brown. common size : up to 4 x 1.1 mm. DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS This is, thanks to its color pattern, one of the most easily recognized species in this very difficult genus; there are about 25 native species of Cerithiopsis but all have uniformly brownish to nearly black shells. BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY All Cerithiopsis species live and graze on sponges, but the particular host of C. pulvis is not yet known. habitat : unknown.

1st Mediterranean record Israel, 1992 [1978]. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide: originally described from the Red Sea, further Indo-Pacific distribution not known. Mediterranean: recorded first in 1978 from Dor, Israel (Mienis 1992); successively from Lebanon (Bogi and Khairallah, 1987); Cyprus (Bogi et al., 1989) and southeast coast of Turkey, Mersina and Antalya areas (Tringali and Villa, 1990). ESTABLISHMENT SUCCESS Moderately rare. speculated reasons for success : - MODE OF INTRODUCTION Possibly via the Suez Canal. IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS None.

KEY REFERENCES Bogi C. and Khairallah N.H., 1987. Nota su alcuni molluschi de provenienza Indo-Pacifica raccolti nella baia di Jounieh (Libano) - Contributo I. Notiziario del CISMA, 10: 54-60. Bogi C., Cianfanelli S. and Talenti E., 1989. La malacofauna dell'Isola di Cipro. Atti prima giornata di studi malacologici CISMA, 187-214. Mienis H.K. 1992. Additional records of the Erythrean gastropods Cerithiopsis pulvis and Cingulina isseli from the Eastern Mediterranean. Levantina, 72: 1-3.   Tringali L. and Villa R., 1990. Rinvenimenti malacologici dalle coste turche (Gastropoda, Polyplacophora, Bivalvia). Notiziario del CISMA, 12: 33-41. van Aartsen J.J., and Carrozza F., 1983. Two more Red Sea species recorded for the first time from the Mediterranean coast of Israel. Bollettino Malacologico, 19(3-4): 37-40. FEEDBACK / COMMENTS TO AUTHORS

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