Australian moon snail
| Australian moon snail | ||||||||||||
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Conuber sordidum , Zoological Illustrations , Volume II, Plate 79, William Swainson (1821). |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Conuber sordidum | ||||||||||||
| ( Swainson , 1821) |
The conuber sordidum ( Conuber sordidum , Syn. : Polinices sordidus ) is a screw from the family of the moon screw extending from molluscs and decapods fed. She lives on the coasts of Australia and New Zealand .
features
The approximately spherical snail shell of Conuber sordidum , which in adult snails can reach up to 1.5 to 2 cm in length, has a brown surface, a protruding thread and a purple-brown housing mouth. The navel is small and partially covered by the inner lip.
distribution and habitat
The Australian moon snail occurs on the east coast of Australia from Victoria to Queensland , also on the shores of Tasmania and New Zealand . It lives on sandy areas in the intertidal zone next to mangroves and seaweed .
nutrition
Like other moon snails, Conuber sordidum eats clams and snails , but also decapods such as soldier crabs (genus Mictyris ) and hermit crabs . Like the captured molluscs, the crabs are also grasped with the foot and a hole is drilled in the shell with the radula . The tough slime of the moon snail helps to immobilize the prey - similar to how other moon snails do with their prey. The snails are slower than the crabs, but take opportunities when the crabs dig themselves out of the sand at low tide or accidentally meet the snail and grab with their propodium . Conuber sordidum is the first species of moon snail to be observed preying on and eating higher crustaceans.
literature
- B. Wilson: Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch Gastropods, Part I . Odyssey Publishing, Leederville, WA 1993
- K. Torigoe, A. Inaba (2011): Revision on the classification of Recent Naticidae . Bulletin of the Nishinomiya Shell Museum 7: 1–133.
Individual evidence
- ^ World Register of Marine Species , World Marine Mollusca database: Conuber sordidum (Swainson, 1821) , not Conuber sordidus .
- ↑ Huelsken, T., Tapken, D., Dahlmann, T., Wägele, H., Riginos, C., Hollmann, M. (2012). Systematics and phylogenetic species delimitation within Polinices s. l. (Caenogastropoda: Naticidae) based on molecular data and shell morphology. Organisms Diversity & Evolution. doi : 10.1007 / s13127-012-0111-5 .
- ↑ a b Thomas Huelsken (2011): First evidence of drilling predation by Conuber sordidus (Swainson, 1821) (Gastropoda: Naticidae) on soldier crabs (Crustacea: Mictyridae) (PDF; 792 kB) . Molluscan Research 31 (2), pp. 125-132. Video ( MP4 ; 4.8 MB)
- ^ William Swainson (1821): Zoological Illustrations, Vol II. Pl. 79. Natica spp. Baldwin & Cradock, London 1821.
- ↑ Indo-Pacific Molluscan Database: Conuber sordidus
Web links
- Thomas Huelsken: Hunters of the Sand. GfBS Newsletter 26/2012, p. 4-7 ( Society for Biological Systematics ; PDF; 1.8 MB).
- CAAB Taxon Report: Conuber sordidum (Swainson, 1821)