No photo available
Big auger
Oxymeris maculata
Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 447359, checked 2026-10-31).
- English
- Big auger
- Scientific
- Oxymeris maculata
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Sea snails
- Maximum size
- Up to about 27.5 cm (shell length)
- Depth and habitat
- Sea floor (benthic), recorded from 0 to 210 m
- IUCN status
- NE · Not EvaluatedNot Evaluated (NE)
Description
The big auger is the largest auger shell, with a long, heavy, pointed spire up to about 25 cm, cream with rows of dark brown spots. It lives buried in sand in lagoons and on sandy reef flats, where it hunts worms.
In the Maldives
Recorded from the Maldives: museum specimens (n=7); iNaturalist research-grade observations in the Maldives (n=37, 26 observers); SeaLifeBase Maldives checklist.
Sources
- sealifebase.se /summary/Oxymeris-maculata.html
- marinespecies.org /aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=447359
- inaturalist.org /taxa/471948
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Acus_maculatus.jpg
Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.