Description
This species was originally described by the American naturalist and malacologist John Gould Anthony in 1854.
The shell of Leptoxis compacta is ovate-conic, smooth, thick and yellowish-green. The spire is obtusely elevated. The shell has about five whorls, that are nearly flat. The body whorl is large, subangulated near the base, with three very dark bands, two of which are below the angle. The penultimate whorl has two bands only, and the lowest of these is nearly or quite concealed by the suture, and on the upper whorl the same band is indicated only by a dark, hair-like line. Sutures are well impressed. The aperture is rather large, ovate, within whitish and banded. The columella is strongly indented, base regularly rounded, without any sinus.
The width of the shell is 10 mm. The height of the shell is 15 mm. The height of the aperture is 7.5 mm.
Most specimens collected from the wild in 2011 had purple pigmentation on the columella indentation, but juveniles propagated in captivity did not have this feature. The external tissue pigmentation of Leptoxis compacta is yellow, mottled with black and includes prominent black bands in the middle of the proboscis and on both eyes. This pigmentation banding pattern is identical to sympatric Leptoxis ampla. Pigmentation patterns and the presence of an ocular peduncle are features that distinguish Leptoxis compacta from sympatric Elimia spp. including Elimia clara, which is conchologically most similar to Leptoxis compacta.
Juvenile Leptoxis compacta shells possess one distinct carina on the main body whorl, which is eventually lost as adults.
The radular structure of Leptoxis compacta is described as including a rachidian tooth with a widely convex basal margin and a blunt central cusp flanked by four to five denticles, with the outermost being weakly developed in most cases. The lateral tooth contains one larger rectangular central cusp that is flanked by four to five outer denticles and three to four inner denticles. The inner marginal teeth contain 10 to 12 denticles, and the outer marginal teeth have 12 to 16 denticles. The outer denticles are often weakly developed.
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