First record of rare marine gastropod Margovula tinctilis (C. N. Cate, 1973) (Gastropoda: Ovulidae) from West coast of India

Abstract

Present paper report a species of false or allied cowrie Margovula tinctilis (C. N. Cate, 1973) for the first time from west coast of India. This species sparsely distributed in premises of coral reef zone at lower intertidal zone of Sikka, Gujarat. Formerly, M. tinctilis has so far been reported only from Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Morphological shell characters such as shell description, habitat, geographical distribution, illustrations and affinities with similar species is discussed here.