Cinctura hunteria, the northern banded tulip, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Fasciolariidae, the spindle snails, the tulip snails and their allies.

Description

The shell of Cinctura hunteria exhibits four to seven primary spiral bands.

Distribution

This species occurs in the Caribbean Sea the Gulf of Mexico and the Western Atlantic.

Ecology

Cinctura hunteria is a predator with a diet that includes polychaetes, bivalves, sea squirts, and other snails. It wedges bivalve shells open with the apertural lip of its own shell, which can break the edge of its shell; C. hunteria shells often have repair scars as a result of this damage. A large percentage of its diet consists of onuphid worms. Cinctura hunteria is prey to the larger fasciolariids Fasciolaria tulipa and Triplofusus giganteus. They are also prey to the whitespotted eagle ray Aetobatus narinari.