Flamingo tongue
| Flamingo tongue | ||||||||||||
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Cyphoma gibbosum on gorgonian , above Sipho, below feeding track (bare coral skeleton) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Cyphoma gibbosum | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The Flamingo tongue ( Cyphoma gibbosum ) is in the western Atlantic Ocean spread snail from the family of ovulidae extending from sea fans fed.
features
The elongated snail shell of Cyphoma gibbosum has a wide mouth and a thick transverse ridge dorsally. The surface of the case is smooth and shiny. It is white or orange and has no patterns with the exception of a white or cream-colored longitudinal band. The inside of the case mouth is white or pink. The house is 1.8 cm to 4.4 cm, but mostly 2.5 cm to 3.5 cm long in adult snails. The shell of the living snail is light orange-yellow with black patterns and covers the shell with two lobes with this color, which is only released from the shell when the snail is at risk.
distribution and habitat
Cyphoma gibbosum is the most common species of the genus Cyphoma in the tropical waters of the western Atlantic Ocean from North Carolina to the north coast of Brazil including Bermuda , the Caribbean , Gulf of Mexico, and Lesser Antilles . It can be found on the cnidarians that serve as hosts to depths of 29 m.
Life cycle
Like other egg snails, Cyphoma gibbosum is of separate sexes. Internal fertilization takes place. The female lays the eggs on corals that she previously ate. After about 10 days, Veliger larvae, which live as zooplankton , hatch before they settle on corals and metamorphose into snails . While the juvenile snails tend to be hidden under the coral branches, the mobile adults are much more visible.
food
Cyphoma gibbosum eats living tissues of the soft corals it lives on, including Briareum spp., Gorgonia spp., Plexaura spp. and Plexaurella spp. The polyps are rasped off with the radula so that the empty skeleton is visible. As a rule, however, the corals can regenerate to such an extent that the snails' meals are not fatal for the entire coral.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b J. J. Welch (2010): The "Island Rule" and Deep-Sea Gastropods: Re-Examining the Evidence. PLoS ONE 5 (1), p. E8776. Doi 10.1371 / journal.pone.0008776.
- ↑ Eddie Hardy: Cyphoma gibbosum. www.gastropods.com.