Key Identification Features
- When alive, individuals of this species have a distinctive blue sheen on their first pair of arms and around their eyes.
- hians has a distinct wide keel that gives it a square overall shape, with a small number of rounded tubercles along the keel, and fewer than 40 smooth ribs running across the sides of the shell.
- It is an extremely variable species, with at least two distinct recognised forms: a "southern" form and a "northern" form.
- It is smaller overall, with an eggcase that rarely grows larger than 80 mm, and lacks the distinctive winged protrusions that give the species its common name.
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