Original taxon: Cerithium latreillii.
Synonym: mamillatum Risso.
12m deep, Vouliagmeni area, Attikí, SE. Greece. 7,7mm.
The species was described after a pale specimen. « Shell small, turriform, whitish, varicose, slightly plicate longitudinally; the folds are interrupted at the suture; whorls 10-12, convex, transversely crossed by 4-5 raised brownish nodulose striae; labrum striped; length 6-7 lines. […] Some white varices on the flanks […] Dedicated to Mr. Latreille, member of the Academy of Sciences. » – B. C. Payraudeau: Catalogue descriptif et méthodique des annélides et des mollusques de l’île de Corse, Paris 1826, p.143. The shell is translucent enough to let appear inside the aperture the external ornamentation, including the white varices.
Protoconch brownish, of about 3 whorls, slightly granulose; two spiral keels appear around the second whorl, at the periphery and below it; the adapical one goes up to subsutural position in the last protoconch whorl. These keels become the spiral cords 3 and 4 on the first teleoconch whorl; the cord 1 seems to appear at the third whorl; between the fourth and the fifth whorls, the cord 2 appears below the 1.
According to F. Agamennone, the keys to determination are:
- The shape is conical;
- The whorls are less rounded than in the congeners;
- The aperture is large, circular, with a sharp edge;
- The sculpture is made up of 4 to 6 spiral rows per whorl;
- The nodules are small and weak;
- The suture is deep, often scalaroid (see picture);
- The colour is uniform, from pale fawn to pale brown;
- Presence of randomly scattered white varices.
In fact, white specimens do occur (see Verduin: “On characters, variability, and distribution of the European marine gastropods Bittium latreillii and Bittium lacteum” Basteria 40, 1976, p.135), leading to some confusion with B. lacteum. But the latter is devoid of varices.
