Nerita polita is a species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of sea snail

Sea snail

Sea snail is a common name for those snails that normally live in saltwater, marine gastropod molluscs....

, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Neritidae

Neritidae

Neritidae, common name the nerites, is a taxonomic family of small to medium-sized saltwater and freshwater snails which have a gill and a distinctive operculum, marine, brackish water and freshwater gastropod mollusks in the order Neritoida....

.

Description

Nerita polita has distinctive smooth and polished shell

Gastropod shell

The gastropod shell is a shell which is part of the body of a gastropod or snail, one kind of mollusc. The gastropod shell is an external skeleton or exoskeleton, which serves not only for muscle attachment, but also for protection from predators and from mechanical damage...

, up to 4 cm. It has smooth columella with 2-4 weak teeth on the edge. Colour is variable, mottled grey, red or cream, sometimes with axial bands. Operculum

Operculum (gastropod)

The operculum, meaning little lid, is a corneous or calcareous anatomical structure which exists in many groups of sea snails and freshwater snails, and also in a few groups of land snails...

 is smooth, cream to black.

Distribution

Distribution of Nerita polita is summarized as Indo-Pacific (Richmond, 1997); Tropical Indo-Pacific in Kalk (1958).

Distribution of Nerita polita include:

• Aldabra
• Chagos
• East Coast of South Africa
• Kenya
• Madagascar
• Mascarene Basin
• Mauritius
• Mozambique
• Red Sea
• Tanzania

Ecology

Habitat of Nerita polita include wet fine sandy shore and littoral

Littoral

The littoral zone is that part of a sea, lake or river that is close to the shore. In coastal environments the littoral zone extends from the high water mark, which is rarely inundated, to shoreline areas that are permanently submerged. It always includes this intertidal zone and is often used to...

fringe of rocky shores.