Drupa ricinus

Drupa (Drupa) ricinus
	Drupa (Drupa) ricinus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
(unranked):	clade Caenogastropoda; clade Hypsogastropoda; clade Neogastropoda
Superfamily:	Muricoidea
Family:	Muricidae
Subfamily:	Rapaninae
Genus:	Drupa
Subgenus:	Drupa
Species:	D. ricinus
Binomial name
	Drupa (Drupa) ricinus; (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
	Drupa (Drupa) ricinus (Linnaeus, 1758); Drupa ricina (Linnaeus, 1758); Drupa rubuscaesius Röding, 1798; Drupa tribulus Röding, 1798; Murex hystrix Linnaeus, 1758; Murex ricinus Linnaeus, 1758; Purpura hystrix Linnaeus, 1758; Ricinula arachnoides Lamarck, 1816; Ricinula hystrix (Linnaeus, 1758); Ricinula ricinus (Linnaeus, 1758); Sistrum album Montfort, 1810; Sistrum ricinus (Linnaeus, 1758);

Drupa (Drupa) ricinus, common name : prickly spotted drupe, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Muricidae, the murex snails or rock snails.^[1]

Subspecies

Drupa (Drupa) ricinus lischkei (Hidalgo, 1904) (synonyms: Drupa (Drupa) ricinus lischkei (Hidalgo, 1904); Drupa hadari Emerson & Cernohorsky, 1973; Ricinula lischkei Hidalgo, 1904 (basionym) )
Drupa (Drupa) ricinus ricinus (Linnaeus, 1758) (synonym: Drupa (Drupa) ricinus ricinus (Linnaeus, 1758) )
Drupa ricinus albolabris (Blainville, 1832)
Drupa ricinus arachnoidea (Lamarck, 1810)

The shell size varies between 19 mm and 32 mm

This species is distributed throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific and along the Galápagos Islands.

Dautzenberg, P. (1923). Liste préliminaire des mollusques marins de Madagascar et description de deux espèces nouvelles. Journal de Conchyliologie 68: 21-74
Dautzenberg, Ph. (1929). Mollusques testacés marins de Madagascar. Faune des Colonies Francaises, Tome III
MacNae, W. & M. Kalk (eds) (1958). A natural history of Inhaca Island, Mozambique. Witwatersrand Univ. Press, Johannesburg. I-iv, 163 pp
Houart R., Kilburn R.N. & Marais A.P. (2010) Muricidae. Pp. 176-270, in: Marais A.P. & Seccombe A.D. (eds), Identification guide to the seashells of South Africa. Volume 1. Groenkloof: Centre for Molluscan Studies. 376 pp.
Claremont M., Reid D.G. & Williams S.T. (2012) Speciation and dietary specialization in Drupa, a genus of predatory marine snails (Gastropoda: Muricidae). Zoologica Scripta 41: 137-149