-18~24m (-60-80 ft), Dived on rocks, Point Loma, San Diego, California, USA, 54.1mm.
The « Queen Tegula » is a famous collector's item among the top shells and much sought-after for its beautiful golden aperture and attractively ribbed base. It is an uncomm.on herbivorous grazing gastropod inhabiting mostly rocky bottoms of shallow subtidal waters around -5~30m deep, ranging from California, USA to west Mexico. Originally placed by Robert E. C. Stearns in the turbinid genus Uvanilla based on the remarkably similar shell; the operculum was not examined in the description, however, and its corneous (as opposed to calcareous) operculum became the basis to correct this taxonomic error. Specimens are quite uniform in form and shape, although the colouration is somewhat variable from light to very dark brown and many form bands of two shades, like the depicted specimen. A rather rough species, picturesque specimens are not the easiest to come by. Typical shell length around 45mm., very large specimens may exceed 65mm.

Uvanilla regina Stearns, 1892: 85; 1893: 350, pl. 50, figs 6-7. Holotype USNM 125314. Guadalupe Island, Lower California. Diagnosis. Shell relatively large (35-55 mm); coniform, straight sided, sculptured with axial ribs, basal keel pinched, projecting, made crenulate by projections of strong axial ribs; base concave, smooth in juvenile, base of mature shell with sharp arcuate radial ridges that abruptly terminate at smooth columellar callus; umbilicus closed in mature shells, with weak umbilical ridge ending in denticle in middle of columella, another weak denticle below; color grayish black, upper part of whorl lighter yellow to orange, columellar callus orange, nacreous layer of aperture (except margin) stained yellow; juvenile shells bicarinate, periphery becoming stellate by third whorl, spiral sculpture of early whorls lost by fifth whorl. Distribution. Anacapa Island, Channel Islands, California to Santa Margarita Island, Baja California (25° N). Sublittoral, on vertical sides of large boulders, 5-20 m. Uncommon. North of San Diego it has been reported only on offshore islands.