59 — Sinclair's turrid, Neoguraleus sinclairi

Neoguraleus sinclairi, Tamaki Drive,
Auckland, 9/04/16.

Two N. sinclairi converge. Tamaki Drive,
Auckland, 9/04/16.

Neoguraleus sinclairi, Tamaki Drive,
Auckland, 9/04/16.

Sinclair's turrid, Neoguraleus sinclairi* is a small sea shell (~10 mm), which is often seen washed up on the tide line of sheltered sandy beaches throughout New Zealand (where it is endemic). This is because they particularly like living on sea-grass flats.

There are several similar species in this genus and they can be a real challenge to tell apart. Neoguraleus sinclairi and N. murdochi (Finlay, 1924) are probably the most easily confused, as their shell morphology is very similar and differences in anatomy need to be studied to tell them apart. However, N. murdochi is found in deeper water than N. sinclairi and is less common, so the latter species is the one that gets seen most often.

Despite its reported abundance, it's another species for which there is scant ecological knowledge. We have a pretty good idea where it lives, but we don't know what it lives on, or what (if anything) feeds on it. A lot of turrids feed on polychaete worms, but whether these do is purely speculation. There's also very little data regarding how many there actually are, so they are what we call data deficient.

The second picture below is really interesting as it shows an interaction between two N. sinclairi. If you follow the tracks back from the centre right you can see them cross and then diverge. This suggests that there one snail crossed the track of another, then turned and followed it. Chances are they were converging to mate, but that's speculation...

* (Gillies, 1882)