Habitat: it lives in low depth on sandy bottoms near the cliffs. It has nocturnal habits. It is collected among rhyzomes of Posidonia oceanica too. Distribution: common all over the Mediterranean.
Notes: it is an extremely polimorpha species, so to determine a large synonymia. The species belonging to this family are distinguishable from the Mitridae due to a different radula and to the lip lired internally. The shell aspect can change from narrow and slim with strong ribs (variant plicatula Brocchi, 1814, Gulf of Gabes) to low and pot-bellied forms, completely smooth too. The remarkable variability of some shell parameters seems it is due to habitat conditions such as depth, temperature, salinity, wave motion. So this species can be really a good indicative model of habitat conditions. While, as far as the ribs variability is concerned, we think it can be of genetic origin (Giannuzzi Savelli, 1984). Protoconch smooth and spherical in its aspect (about 0.5 mm in diametre) and it puts in evidence the short pelagic life in larval phase. The animal is black in colour, with pits dirty white in colour, tentacles yellow. It is easily recognizable from its similar ones mainly since it is bigger in sizes and it has a different cromatic pattern. The adult specimens average measures are around 30-35 mm in height.