Horned spiny snail
| Horned spiny snail | ||||||||||||
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Housing of Bolinus cornutus , from Nouadhibou (Mauritania), different views |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Bolinus cornutus | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The horned prickly snail ( Bolinus cornutus ), like some related species also called purple snail , is a snail from the family of prickly pods (genus Bolinus ), which is common on the African Atlantic coast .
features
The ash-brown to whitish snail shell of Bolinus cornutus covered with yellow or red-brown ribbons is large and piston-shaped. It has a bulbous body circumference, a strongly flattened thread and a long siphon channel. The circumference of the body has seven rows with two or three hollow spines bent backwards like horns, the siphon canal is covered with individual short spines. In adult snails the house can reach a length of up to 20 cm. The operculum is horny.
distribution
The horned spiny snail occurs on the Atlantic coast of Africa , including in Angola and Gabon .
Habitat and way of life
The horned prickly snail lives on sand and muddy bottoms in shallow water up to a depth of 200 m. Like other spiny snails, Bolinus cornutus lives mainly on sessile shell-bearing animals.
Importance to humans
Bolinus cornutus , known for a long time under the original name Murex cornutus by Linné , forms a milky secretion like other purple snails , which is used to hunt, defend and protect the eggs against microbes. The colorless substance first turns green in air and later purple-red. Therefore, the horned prickly snail can be used as a supplier of purple .
Individual evidence
- ^ C. Brüggemann: The natural history in faithful illustrations and with a detailed description of the same. Eduard Eisenach publisher, Leipzig 1838. The molluscs. P. 71. The horned prickly snail. Murex cornutus Linn.
- ^ Julia Ellen Rogers: The Shell Book. Doubleday, Page & Company, New York 1908, p. 32: The Horned Murex. Murex cornutus Linn.
- ↑ Carolus Linnaeus : Systema Naturae. 10th ed., Lars Salvius: Stockholm 1758, p. 747. 445. Murex cornutus.
- ↑ World Register of Marine Species , Bolinus cornutus (Linnaeus, 1758)
- ↑ Guido T. Poppe, Yoshihiro Goto: European seashells, vol. 1 (Polyplacophora, Caudofoveata, Solenogastra, Gastropoda) . Christa Hemmen, Wiesbaden 1991. ISBN 3-925919-07-4 . 352 pp.
- ^ A b Robert Tucker Abbott, Percy A. Morris: A Field Guide to Shells: Atlantic and Gulf Coasts and the West Indies. Houghton Mifflin, Harcourt 2001, ISBN 978-0-618-16439-4 , p. 207.
literature
- GE Radwin, A. D'Attilio: Murex shells of the world. An illustrated guide to the Muricidae . Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford 1976, ISBN 978-0-8047-0897-5 , x + pp. 1–284 including 192 figs. + 32 pls. Bolinus cornutus : p. 29.
- Robert Tucker Abbott, S. Peter Dance: Compendium of seashells: a color guide to more than 4,200 of the world's marine shells. American Malacologists, 1990, ISBN 978-0-915826-17-9 . Bolinus cornutus : p. 138.
