No photo available
Common egg cowry
Ovula ovum
Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 216904, checked 2026-10-31).
- English
- Common egg cowry
- Scientific
- Ovula ovum
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Cowries
- Maximum size
- Up to about 11 cm (shell length)
- Depth and habitat
- Sea floor (benthic), recorded from 0 to 20 m
- IUCN status
- NE · Not EvaluatedNot Evaluated (NE)
Description
The common egg cowry has a smooth, white, egg-shaped shell up to about 10 cm long. The living animal covers it with a velvety black mantle dotted with small yellow spots. It lives on shallow reefs, where it feeds on leather corals such as Sarcophyton and Sinularia.
In the Maldives
Recorded from the Maldives: museum specimens (n=1); iNaturalist research-grade observations in the Maldives (n=3, 3 observers).
Sources
- sealifebase.se /summary/Ovula-ovum.html
- marinespecies.org /aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=216904
- inaturalist.org /taxa/355372
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Caracola_de_mar_(Ovula_ovum),_Zanzíbar,_Tanzania,_2024-06-0
Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.