Babylonian screw worm

Babylonian screw worm
	Housing of Terebra babylonia
Systematics
Subordination :	Hypsogastropoda
Partial order :	New snails (Neogastropoda)
Superfamily :	Conoidea
Family :	Screw snails (Terebridae)
Genre :	Terebra
Type :	Babylonian screw worm
Scientific name
	Terebra babylonia
	Lamarck , 1822

The Babylonian screw auger ( Terebra babylonia ) is a snail from the family of the screw worm , which in the western Pacific Ocean is widespread and polychaete (Polychaeta) eats.

features

Terebra babylonia has a long and slender, tapering snail shell with barely rounded edges, which in adult snails reaches about 4.5 cm in length and 7 mm in length. Below the seam runs a band with two rows, later a row of elongated pearls, delimited by a deep, spiraling groove. The thread is sculptured with axial strips. The Protoconch consists of three and a half conical, slightly convex passages with a notched seam. The case mouth is egg-shaped, the spindle is folded. The case is flesh-colored with orange-brown stripes, a white band along the seam and an orange-brown case mouth.

distribution and habitat

Terebra babylonia is distributed in the Indo-Pacific from the Persian Gulf via China and Fiji to Polynesia and Micronesia from the shore to a depth of about 200 m.

Development cycle

Like all snails, Terebra babylonia is sexually separate, and the male mates with his penis . The Veliger larvae swim free before they sink and metamorphose into crawling snails .

nutrition

Terebra babylonia feeds on Vielborstern (Polychaeta). The prey animals are stung with radula teeth and poisoned with the help of the poison gland .

literature

Dennis M. Devaney, E. Alison Kay, Lucius G. Eldredge: Reef and Shore Fauna of Hawaii, vol. 4. BP Bishop Museum Special Publication 64 (1), 1979. p. 393.
George Washington Tryon: Manual of Conchology, structural and systematic, with illustrations of the species , vol. VII; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 1885. T [erebra] babylonia Lamarck., P. 28.

Web links

Commons : Terebra babylonia - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Underwater Kwajalein: Terebra babylonia ... eating an annelid worm. ( Picture )
↑ Mande Holford, Nicolas Puillandre, Yves Terryn, Corinne Cruaud, Baldomero Olivera, Philippe Bouchet (2009): Evolution of the Toxoglossa Venom Apparatus as Inferred by Molecular Phylogeny of the Terebridae. Molecular Biology and Evolution 26 (1), pp. 15-25, here p. 22.

[1] Underwater Kwajalein: Terebra babylonia ... eating an annelid worm. ( Picture )

[2] Mande Holford, Nicolas Puillandre, Yves Terryn, Corinne Cruaud, Baldomero Olivera, Philippe Bouchet (2009): Evolution of the Toxoglossa Venom Apparatus as Inferred by Molecular Phylogeny of the Terebridae. Molecular Biology and Evolution 26 (1), pp. 15-25, here p. 22.