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Melarhaphe neritoides
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Littorinimorpha
Family:	Littorinidae
Genus:	Melarhaphe; Menke, 1828
Species:	M. neritoides
Binomial name
	Melarhaphe neritoides; (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
	Helix petraea Montagu, 1803; Littorina neritoides (Linnaeus, 1758); Littorina petraeus (Montagu, 1803); Melarhaphe induta (Westerlund, 1898); Paludinella littorina (delle Chiaje, 1828); Tricolia rissoi Audouin, 1826; Turbo neritoides Linnaeus, 1758;

Melarhaphe neritoides, common name : the small periwinkle, is a species of small sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Littorinidae, the winkles or periwinkles.^[1]

This species was previously known as Littorina neritoides.

Melarhaphe is a monotypic genus, in other words, this is the only species in that genus.

Description and habitat

This is a tiny species with the size of an adult shell varying between 4 mm and 9 mm. It has a high pointed spire. The dark aperture is oval. The purple-brown spiral band can be clearly seen on the body whorl.

The small periwinkle breeds in late winter. Its pelagic egg capsules release planktonic larvae.

This small gastropod lives in the upper levels of natural or artificial rocky shores, up to the limit of the highest tides, where it can be abundant and is often the only marine gastropod. It feeds on detritus and on black lichen of the genus Lichina^[2].

Distribution

This species is found in European waters from Norway down south, in the Atlantic Ocean along the Azores, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Morocco, Mauritania; in the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.

References

^ ^a ^b Melarhaphe neritoides (Linnaeus, 1758). Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 4 December 2018.
^ "Small periwinkle (Melarhaphe neritoides) - MarLIN - The Marine Life Information Network". www.marlin.ac.uk. Retrieved 2023-12-14.

WoRMS info

Backeljau, T. (1986). Lijst van de recente mariene mollusken van België [List of the recent marine molluscs of Belgium]. Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen: Brussels, Belgium. 106 pp
Reid, D.G. (1989) The comparative morphology, phylogeny and evolution of the gastropod family Littorinidae. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B 324: 1-110.
Britton J. C. (1995) "The relationship between position on shore and shell ornamentation in 2 size-dependent morphotypes of Littorina striata, with an estimate of evaporative water-loss in these morphotypes and in Melarhaphe neritoides". Hydrobiologia 309: 129-142. abstract.
Howson, C.M.; Picton, B.E. (Ed.) (1997). The species directory of the marine fauna and flora of the British Isles and surrounding seas. Ulster Museum Publication, 276. The Ulster Museum: Belfast, UK. ISBN 0-948150-06-8. vi, 508
de Kluijver, M.J.; Ingalsuo, S.S.; de Bruyne, R.H. (2000). Macrobenthos of the North Sea [CD-ROM]: 1. Keys to Mollusca and Brachiopoda. World Biodiversity Database CD-ROM Series. Expert Center for Taxonomic Identification (ETI): Amsterdam, the Netherlands. ISBN 3-540-14706-3. 1 cd-rom pp
Kantor Yu.I. & Sysoev A.V. (2006) Marine and brackish water Gastropoda of Russia and adjacent countries: an illustrated catalogue. Moscow: KMK Scientific Press. 372 pp. + 140 pls.
Cabral-Oliveira J., Maranhão P. & Pardal M. Â. (June 2009) "The effect of sewage discharge on Melarhaphe neritoides (Gastropoda: Littorinidae) population dynamics". Scientia Marina 73(2): 259-267. doi:10.3989/scimar.2009.73n2259
Reid D.G. (2011) The genus Echinolittorina Habe, 1956 (Gastropoda: Littorinidae) in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Zootaxa 2974: 1–65.
Kadolsky D. (2012) Nomenclatural comments on non-marine molluscs occurring in the British Isles. Journal of Conchology 41(1): 65-90.
Fourdrilis S., Mardulyn P., Hardy O. J., Jordaens K., de Frias Martins A. M., Backeljau T. (2016) "Mitochondrial DNA hyperdiversity and its potential causes in the marine periwinkle Melarhaphe neritoides (Mollusca: Gastropoda)". PeerJ 4:e2549. doi:10.7717/peerj.2549