Mangelia attenuata: Habitat: it lives in a few metres depth up to moderate depths (50-60 m), on muddy-detrital bottoms. Distribution: it can be found in a large part of the Mediterranean but never common.
Notes: this species, easy to be determined, belongs to the group having a spiral sculpture made by thin incised lines and by a polygyral protoconch. Shell very stretched, not much sharp-cornered, suture broad and undulating, whorls not much convex. Axial sculpture made by 9-10 ribs prominent, sinuous near suture, narrower than the interspaces. Surface crossed by close and fine spiral incisions less clear in the back of the ribs. Aperture stretched, a siphonal canal long and open, external lip with no special thickenings. Ground colour pattern changeable: from yellow to brown, with axial ribs lighter. There are spiral lines reddish in colour and one band below-suture red-brown, inside the mouth too. Protoconch (about three whorls of spiral) light brown in colour. The two species with similar characteristics are M. costata (Donovan, 1804) and M coarctata (Forbes, 1840) (CLEMAM consider them conspecifics) that are distinguishable due to the smaller sizes, to the axial ribs in lower number more sinuous and narrow, therefore with wider interspaces, to the external lip more thickened and to a different chromatic pattern. Even the protoconch is lighter. M. tenuicostata (Brugnone, 1868) was considered as a synonym of attenuata. Recently Solustri & Micali, 2002; Penas et al., 2008 deem to keep the two entities distinct, on the basis of a microsculpture present on the surface of tenuicostata teleconch. Yuvenile specimens have more convex whorls and more sinuous ribs. The adult specimens average measures are around 10-12 mm in height.