Atlanta rosea

Souleyet, 1852

Shell of moderate size (to about 5 mm) and flat. Coloration faintly yellowish. Spire almost globular, of about 3 and 1/2 whorls, and with a smooth surface. Suture separating first 2 and 1/2 whorls extremely shallow, so that whorls are difficult to distinguish. These spire features, visible best using transmitted light on larval shells or the isolated spire, are so characteristic that they suffice to distinguish this species. However, it often requires the preparation (and partial destruction) of the shell. The larvae of this species can be easily distinguished from those of other species in this group by the bright pink tinge to their shells.
Based on our current information, this species appears to be extremely rare but is distributed circumglobally. In 1908 Tesch united Atlanta rosea with Atlanta peroni, probably because the holotypes in the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris were already badly damaged (shells dissolved) when he had the opportunity to study them. Comparing "aberrant" shells of Atlanta peroni from the Indian Ocean and the tropical Atlantic Ocean with the type shells of Souleyet, preserved dry in the British Museum, London, Richter (1993) found that they belonged to this very species.

See the family Atlantidae for a discussion of the species groups.

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