About Pugilina tupiniquim Abbate & Simone, 2015
Pugilina tupiniquim is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk that belongs to the family Melongenidae, the group that includes crown conches and their close relatives. This species and its close relative from the Eastern Atlantic, Pugilina morio, were previously considered to be a single amphiatlantic species. However, they are now recognized as separate distinct taxa, based on differences in their anatomy and preferred environments. This species is distributed in the Western Atlantic Ocean, where it occurs in mangrove areas along the Brazilian coast, ranging northward to the Caribbean. In traditional medicine practiced in Northeast Brazil, Pugilina tupiniquim, which was formerly misidentified as the Eastern Atlantic sister species Pugilina morio, is used as a zootherapeutic product to treat sexual impotence.
