In which area? 

I believe this species must be related to the family Buccinidae or Raphitomidae but it is hard to tell from the photo.

It is nearly certainly COlumbellidae. But what is the continent?

A Columbellidae it is, for sure. Genus Zafra?

I think that it is genus Anachis, but I don't know what species.

Columbellidae sp.

Collumbellidae

Definitely columbellid, a species that generally gets dumped in Anachis. Need to know where it's from though. India has A. terpsichore and A. fauroti that are similar, but it isn't those. It looks like A. miser, but that has a pretty restricted distribution, and this looks like it might have a multiwhorl protoconch, which A. miser does not. If it's eastern Atlantic or eastern Pacific, then there's a number of other possibilities.

sure this is the columbellidae, gatropod but to know the species need to unerstand the area where it i collected 

Hi Marta,

When I saw the picture I thought that’s Anachis terpsichore. So I checked the ANSP collection to make sure, and found we have similar specimens under A. terpsichore, A. zebra, and A. nigrocincta, all from India and Sri Lanka. I pulled two lots of A. fauroti from the Arabian Peninsula out of the mess and decided that what we have from Japan and Hawaii as A. miser are probably two different things. Then I saw your comment.

Anachis terpsichore, A. miser and A. zebra were all described without locality; the latter was described as Buccinum zebra (Wood, 1828) and so can be ignored as preoccupied by Buccinum zebra Müller, 1774 (I updated WoRMS to that effect). But what localities go with the other names? Is it correct to associate A. miser with Japan? If so, what’s in Hawaii? How do you tell A. terpsichore from A. miser?

Thanks,

Gary

Hi Gary!

Sowerby's illustrations of A. miser and A. terpsichore are not very helpful, unfortunately. The two figures for the latter are mis-numbered but in the correct order and the figure for A. miser could be just about anything. Last year I spent some time in London and prowled through the types and general collection, and I believe the type specimens are there; they just hadn't been pulled out of the general collection. There's three likely syntypes of A. terpsichore in London, Cuming Coll'n, said to be from Nevis, but obviously erroneous. They're typical to the northern Indian Ocean. They're bigger (~17-18mm), mostly white with brown markings and heavy axials. The situation with A. miser is a little dodgier, but there's several lots of specimens in London in the general collection that come from the Cuming Coll'n, locality said to be Japan or China Seas (so no locality exactly matches). And, as Sowerby points out, there's some that are essentially without axials, that match perfectly specimens from Hawaii island. This species is smaller (~10-15mm), typically darker than A. terpsichore, and less ribby, though the base color is white. Specimens from Japan have stronger axials. For these I'm not sure which is/are the type(s), though one of the boards (that the shells have all fallen off of) is said to be the type. A. fauroti is narrower for the length and has a fairly stereotypic pattern.

A. cuspidata?

Does A. refer to Amphissa? Where (geographically) is this from? Is it subtidal, rocky..what habitat? 

This looks close to Anachis trepsichore, recorded in India and Sri Lanka. I think Rajan Babu should have collected the sample from somewhere in the east coast of India. I am attaching the reports of this species from east and west coast of India. 

Dr Gary and Dr Marta, thanks for the insights!! It was very informative!

All the best Rajan 

Dr Gary, Dr Marta and Dr. Deepak, I have attached the picture which containing three specimen photos (Anachis trepsichore, Anachis fauroti and ?-uploded one). In the photo i made a difference between the three specimen with red arrow markings. Kindly go through the pictures and confirm the specimen.

Quite honestly, they all look like Anachis miser or something very similar. That species varies considerably in color, pattern and degree of sculpture, and I suspect there's more than one species under that name. A. terpsichore, though I haven't seen that many of those to get a handle on the variation, is larger with a shorter apex. The one you've identified as A. terpsichore could be it, it has the right markings, but I've not seen one as high spired as that. And again, the types of that species are about 18mm long. A. fauroti is rather different and I think all the specimens I've heard about are from the Gulf of Aden. So, basically, they all seem likely to be the same thing, but I'm not sure if it's an odd morphotype of A. terpsichore or A. miser. Still assuming we're talking India here.

I would agree that it is a columbellid. You  can look at the color pattern and the relief to see whether it is an Anachis sp. as suggested.

This collection may help you find the genus and species. they have specimens from all over the world so you might find your match. 

http://www.nmr-pics.nl/Columbellidae_new/album/index.html

Thank you very much for your post

Dear ALL,

from the internet Hawaii shells (link given below) I come to understand that A. miser as per Cernohorsky (1972), Hemes in HSN, Kay (1979), and Severns (2001) is the current name for A. trepsichore and the write up further adds on that Indian A. miser is usually considered as A. trepsichore???? although many accept it to be a form of A. miser.

Rajan Babu, if you take more minute morphological characters like columellar fold of teeth, inner and outer lips and anal notch, more light can be thrown on morphotypes be it A. miser or A. trespsichore as mentioned by Dr Marta..It will be interesting to know the results!!!

http://internethawaiishellnews.org/IHSN/2008/0803/Fea3/page9.html

Here's what I've observed in the ANSP collection. In Japan, there is a brown color form of Anachis miser: our largest specimen is 15.7 mm. it is also our largest specimen identified as A. miser. The brown form does not occur in India or Sri Lanka in material here. Our largest specimen of Anachis from India is 19.2 mm. Taking it to be A. terpsichore on the basis of size, and because it is consistent with the description of that species gives a starting point. The same sample has a fully mature individual of 11.6 mm. So size range differs between the species, but not in a way that helps with identification, except of the largest individuals. The same can be said of spire height: spires more than half the shell length occur occasionally in A. miser, and not in A. terpsichore, but there is considerable overlap in spire height. The only character I've seen which might differentiate them is that the axial ribs in A. terpsichore have a central depression, whereas A. miser usually does not. That is, the rib is strong near the suture, a little depressed near the periphery, then stronger again. The more prominent parts of the rib tend to correspond to white in the color pattern, and the depressed part to brown. None of our adults have protoconchs; I haven't looked at juveniles yet.

Yeah, therein lies the problem. These two species, if one has lots of individuals to look at (and that will be important), probably overlap to a fair degree in a number of characteristics, but I've not seen enough of them to have a good grip on which is which. The form we have here on Hawaii Island may be a related local endemic; even the specimens I've seen from Oahu are different. Like I said, it has a paucispiral protoconch. None of the possible type specimens in London has a decent protoconch so that needs to be checked. There may very well be several species involved, but they need study.

From where it has been collected? May be Cymia lacera (Born)

Hi Dr. Marta, Dr.Gray and Dr. Deepak

I have attached the photo which containing more details about those three organisms, which will help to identify it in details. I was very confusing about the A.miser, A.trepischore and A.fauroti, when we look simply it all looks similar but its not so when we see the shell characteristics in details.

First, I'm pretty sure none of them are A. fauroti. It looks like the one on the right has spiral grooves and the others do not; that is useful in some cases for species discrimination. To the best of my knowledge, none of the three species you mention has spirals. The one on the left looks most like what I think of as A. terpsichore. The other two may or may not be the same thing.

Dr. Marta, A. fauroti has been recorded in the Gulf of Mannar, SE coast of India by the Tropical Marine Molliusc Programme team and identified by Dr. David. G. Reid from the British Museum. Besides, Anachis comistea (Melvill, 1906)identified by Richard Kilburn (Retired from Nattal Museum South Africa and A. misera?? (Sowerby, 1844) as a doubtful reporting of Pyrene zebra of Sathyamurthi (1857) is also reported from Gulf of Mannar, 

dear Dr. Marta, Dr.Gray and Dr. Deepak

 previously we discussed anachis fauroti and A.terpsichore, now i collected another specimen it's exactly looking like A.miser, please help me to get the solution

Looks like a pretty old shell and worn out..Looks close to A. miser yes..

Looks like a juvenile, but I'm not sure which species.

I suggest you approach Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta and provide them complete details. Also I would suggest British Museum of Natural History, Malacology Section