Notched screw worm

Notched screw worm
	Housing of Oxymeris crenulata
Systematics
Subordination :	Hypsogastropoda
Partial order :	New snails (Neogastropoda)
Superfamily :	Conoidea
Family :	Screw snails (Terebridae)
Genre :	Oxymeris
Type :	Notched screw worm
Scientific name
	Oxymeris crenulata
	( Linnaeus , 1758)

The notched screw snail or the notched screw ( Oxymeris crenulata , common synonyms : Terebra crenulata , Acus crenulatus ) is a snail belonging to the family of the helix (genus Oxymeris ) that is common in the western Pacific Ocean . It eats acorn worms , which - unlike most Conoidea - it overwhelms without poison.

features

Oxymeris crenulata carries a large, firm, tapering snail shell with around 28 rounded whorls and a wide body, which in adult snails reaches up to 11.5 cm in length and 2 cm in width with an up to 2 cm long case mouth. The case mouth is wide, the spindle quite smooth, the fasciole short but strong. The case is sculptured at each handling with small, pointed nodules directly under the seam, with a small constriction under each nodule. The early whorls show axial folds, the later only growth strips. The color of the housing is yellowish-brown to creamy-pink with white nodules, three or four on the circumference of the body and two spiral rows of reddish-brown dots and small, fine reddish-brown stripes between the nodules on the other circumferences.

distribution and habitat

Oxymeris crenulata is distributed in the Indo-Pacific from the Red Sea and the coast of Tanzania via Aldabra , Chagos , Madagascar , the Mascarene , Andaman and Nicobar Islands as well as the entire Pacific Ocean to the west coast of Mexico . It lives in shallow water on sandy surfaces.

Development cycle

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

nutrition

Oxymeris crenulata has no poisonous apparatus and therefore swallows live prey, which it sucks in with its pseudoproboscis. It eats sand-dwelling acorn worms such as Ptychodera flava . The prey is usually caught from under the sand, and the snail remains buried in the sand to feed.

literature

R. Venkitesan, AK Mukherjee (2012): Contribution to the knowledge on Indian marine molluscs: Family Terebridae. Records of the Zoological Survey of India 111 (3), pp. 49-77, here pp. 63f.
George Washington Tryon: Manual of Conchology, structural and systematic, with illustrations of the species , vol. VII; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 1885. T [erebra] crenulata Linn., Pp. 8f.
Jerry G. Walls: Cone Shells: A Synopsis of the Living Terebridae TFH Publications, Neptune (New Jersey) 1979. pp. 86-88.

Web links

Commons : Oxymeris crenulata - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ 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 pp. 15, 22.
↑ John D. Taylor (1986): Diets of sand-living predatory gastropods at Piti Bay, Guam. Asian Marine Biology 3, pp. 47-58.
↑ Underwater Kwajalein: Oxymeris crenulata ... attacking hemicordates (acorn worms) that form thick spaghetti-like mounds on the surface of the sand. (with pictures of the eating process)

[1] 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 pp. 15, 22.

[2] John D. Taylor (1986): Diets of sand-living predatory gastropods at Piti Bay, Guam. Asian Marine Biology 3, pp. 47-58.

[3] Underwater Kwajalein: Oxymeris crenulata ... attacking hemicordates (acorn worms) that form thick spaghetti-like mounds on the surface of the sand. (with pictures of the eating process)