(Linné, 1758)
Description (shell);
Shell solid, glossy, ridged transversely, with longitudinal lines sometimes visible; opaque, aperture two-thirds of shell height, a peg on inner columella (A. tornatilis-drawing).
Size:
Up to 25 mm long.
Colour:
Varying shades of pink with white bands, each with a narrow darker pink edge on either side; two white bands on body whorl, one on each of other whorls.
Animal:
Operculum triangular, transparent, amber coloured and with fine lines diffusing from edge. Body creamy white, large and fleshy, completely retractable into the shell. Foot and head divided anteriorly; head with large lobes, foot with small, blunt propodial tentacles (A. tornatilis-animal).
Habitat:
Burrows in clean, rather fine but not silty, sand, below MTL and in the shallow sublittoral. It has been observed to feed on the polychaetes Lanice conchilega and Owenia fusiformis. It is most easily captured on a rising tide, when the animals burrow along the surface leaving a characteristic trail in the sand.
Distribution:
Common in the North Sea, in sheltered sandy bays (Distr. A. tornatilis); further distribution from Iceland, Faroes, Shetland, Norway and Atlantic coasts of France to the Mediterranean Sea (as far as the Aegean).