Busycon
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| Röding , 1798 |
Busycon is the name of agenus of snails from the horned snail family, whose large to very large species can be found in the western Atlantic on the coast of North America . The snails feed on mussels .
features
The large housings of the Busycon species are pear-shaped and bulbous at the top. They are drawn out into a long, thin, sometimes slightly bent back stem. The columella has a sloping, inconspicuous fold at the transition to the siphonal canal. The cases are thicker than those of the related Busycotype and have a low thread.
The snails are black. They have a broad, rounded foot, blunt at the back. The short head has a long trunk and large, triangular, vertically compressed antennae, on which the small stalked eyes are located about a third of the height.
The radula has a wide central plate with 5 to 6 long teeth and side plates with 4 to 6 teeth each, the outermost of which is the largest.
Like other new snails, the Busycon species are separate sexes, with the females becoming significantly larger than the males and only reaching sexual maturity later. The males mate the females with their penis . The females lay egg cords with sometimes more than 100 disc-shaped egg capsules, each of which contains several viable eggs and sterile nursing eggs. The development of the Veliger stage takes place in the egg capsule, so that ready-made snails hatch several months after they have laid their eggs. These have housings several millimeters long. The snails grow slowly and only become sexually mature after several years.
The Busycon species mainly feed on mussels . The shell halves of the prey are either pressed open with the foot, levered open with the shell edge or pieces are broken out of the shell with the same. The prey animals also include thick-shelled mussel species.
Systematics
The generic name Busycon is first mentioned in 1798 by Peter Friedrich Röding in the catalog of the Conchyliensammlung by Joachim Friedrich Bolten with 6 species. The name is derived from the Greek βοῦς , " beef " and the Greek σῦκον , " fig ". Röding gave the species German names such as "Stachlige Feige" ( Busycon carica ) and "Left-wound fig" ( Busycon perversum ).
According to the World Register of Marine Species, the following species belong to the genus Busycon :
- Busycon candelabrum Lamarck , 1816
- Busycon carica (Gmelin, 1791)
- Busycon coarctatum (Sowerby I, 1825)
- Busycon perversum ( Linnaeus , 1758), left-handed
- Busycon sinistrum Hollister, 1958, also left-wound, is considered a subspecies of Busycon perversum according to recent studies.
- Busycon laeostomum Kent, 1982, also left-wound, is considered a subspecies of Busycon perversum according to recent studies.
- Busycon Lyonsi Petuch, 1987
- Busycon pulleyi Hollister, 1958
Busycon contrarium Conrad 1840 is a left-hand wound species described in fossil records, whose name was often applied to today's left-hand wound snails of this genus (actually Busycon perversum ) from the middle of the 20th century .
The following species, which have a light-colored base and coat with darker spots, smoother housings with thinner walls, and terrace-like threads, have long been counted as Busycon , but now form a separate genus Busycotype :
- Busycotypus canaliculatus ( Linnaeus , 1758)
- Busycotype plagosus (Conrad, 1862)
- Busycotypus spiratus (Lamarck, 1816)
In the past, the genera Busycon and Busycotype were counted among the Melongenidae . On the basis of anatomical studies of the digestive system and a cladistic analysis on a molecular genetic basis by Kosyan and Kantor (2004), these two genera are now included in the family of horned snails (Buccinidae).
literature
- Wilhelm Kobelt : The genera Pyrula and Fusus; together with Ficula, Bulbus, Tudicla, Busycon, Neptunea and Euthria. Systematic Conchylia Cabinet. Verlag von Bauer & Raspe, Nuremberg 1881. pp. 45–53. V. genus. Busycon Bolten.
- Hulda Magalhaes (1948): An Ecological Study of Snails of the Genus Busycon at Beaufort, North Carolina . Ecological Monographs 18 (3), pp. 377-409. ( jstor )
- Robert T. Paine (1962): Ecological Diversification in Sympatric Gastropods of the Genus Busycon . Evolution 16 (4), pp. 515-523.
- AR Kosyan, Yu. I. Kantor (2004): Morphology, taxonomic status and relationships of Melongenidae (Gastropoda: Neogastropoda) (PDF; 191 kB) . Ruthenica 14 (1), pp. 9-36.
Web links
- Jaxshells.com: The Genera Busycon & Busycotypus - The Whelks
- World Marine Mollusca database: Busycon Röding, 1798 ( World Register of Marine Species )
- Fischhaus Zepkow: Family Buccinidae - Horn snails
Individual evidence
- ↑ Peter Friedrich Röding (1798): Museum Boltenianum, sive, Catalogus cimeliorum e tribus regnis naturae quae olim collegerat Joa. Fried. Bolten : pars secunda continens conchylia sive testacea univalvia, bivalvia et multivalvia . Trappi, Hamburg, viii. + 199 pp. Reprinted by the British Museum , London 1906. Page 149, Ark 77, Busycon. 1866 .
- ↑ a b c J. Wise, MG Harasewych, RT Dillon Jr. (2004): Population divergence in the sinistral whelks of North America, with special reference to the east Florida ecotone ( Memento of the original from August 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 673 kB) . Marine Biology 145, pp. 1167-1179.
