Busycotype canaliculatus

Busycotype canaliculatus
	Housing of Busycotypus canaliculatus
Systematics
Order :	Sorbeoconcha
Partial order :	New snails (Neogastropoda)
Superfamily :	Buccinoidea
Family :	Buccinidae
Genre :	Busy type
Type :	Busycotype canaliculatus
Scientific name
	Busycotype canaliculatus
	( Linnaeus , 1758)

Busycotypus canaliculatus from San Francisco Bay in a market in California

Busycotypus canaliculatus , near Röding the crowned fig, is a large species of snail from the Buccinidae family thatlivesin the western Atlantic on the coast of North America . It was introduced in San Francisco Bay .

features

The right-hand twisted, pear-shaped snail shell of Busycotypus canaliculatus , which in adult snails can grow up to 18 cm long, has a very wide body circumference that gradually tapers at the bottom, and a pear-shaped housing mouth with a simple, thin rim that ends in a long, open one and mostly straight siphon channel ends. The 6 right-angled whorls are covered with nodules on the edge and are stepped off from one another on the thread like a terrace. Along the seam, they are separated from each other by a deep and wide channel. The first two passages form a clear peak. The case has blunt spiral ribs and clearly visible growth strips. The columella is strongly curved. The strong, yellowish-brown, flaking periostracum has rows of short, stiff hairs along the growth strips and the spiral ribs. The horny, rather small, dark brown operculum is egg-shaped and has the nucleus below. The surface of the housing is yellowish gray on the outside and the opening is yellowish.

The snail has a broad, rounded, gray foot with darker spots and an orange sole, a whitish coat with gray spots, which at the very front is more black, which turns gray towards the back. The antennae are black, the muzzle white with gray spots. The Sipho hardly protrudes from the canal in the active snail.

Occurrence

Busycotypus canaliculatus is found in the western Atlantic on the coast of North America from Cape Cod in Massachusetts to St. Augustine in Florida . It was probably introduced to San Francisco Bay with oyster spawn in the 1930s or 1940s, where it has established itself as the largest local snail species.

It lives in the intertidal zone and below on muddy and sandy surfaces.

Life cycle

Busycotypus canaliculatus is a slowly growing snail and is around 20 to 30 years old. Like other new snails, the snail is sexually separate, with the females being significantly larger than the males. Males reach sexual maturity with a shell length at around 3 to 5 years of age, while females only reach sexual maturity at around 9 to 12 years of age. The males mate the females with their penis . In Virginia , the females typically lay their egg cords with numerous disc-shaped egg capsules in the intertidal zone or slightly below in the period from mid-August to November. The clutches are anchored in the muddy ground and separate when the juvenile snails hatch. The development of the Veliger stage takes place in the egg capsule, so that depending on the temperature, finished snails hatch several months after oviposition, which, according to measurements in Virginia and North Caroline, have about 4 mm long shells, in Georgia about 6 mm long. Hatching in Virginia usually occurs in April, when temperatures are around 15-18 ° C. Freshly hatched snails have been observed eating bog animals ( Membranipora sp.) Right next to their empty egg capsule . If the very young snails still live in protected shallow water areas, somewhat larger animals migrate to deeper areas. Up to a case size of 2.5 cm, they often float in the current instead of crawling.

nutrition

Busycotypus canaliculatus is a carnivore that feeds primarily on mussels . The snail presses open the shell halves of the mussel with its foot or lever it apart with its edge. Then it leads the proboscis to the meat of the prey, which is minced with the help of the radula .

Busycotypus canaliculatus eats thin-shelled mussels, including mussels such as Geukensia demissa , but also clams such as Mercenaria mercenaria . The rather thin shell of this snail species explains that, unlike snails with a stronger shell like the lightning snail, it does not break any pieces out of the mussel shell, which is why thick-shelled and at the same time tightly closed mussel species do not belong to the prey spectrum. The snail can damage its shell when prying open a mussel. The mussels react to chemical stimuli emanating from the predatory snails with reduced activity. As a result, they filter less and cannot grow as quickly; on the other hand, they themselves also emit less chemical stimuli, so that the mussels are not only found by the predatory snails, but also by other predators such as blue crabs .

Human use and exposure

Busycotypus canaliculatus , channeled whelk on the east coast of the US and called eastern conch in California , is collected for its meat and housing and traded commercially in markets.

Enemies

The predators of Busycotypus canaliculatus include stone crabs , which the snails evade when chemical stimuli are distant.

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. 1872 6 B. Canaliculatum. The crowned fig, gmelin , Murex canaliculatus .

↑ Juliana M. Harding (2011): Observations on the early life history and growth rates of juvenile channel whelks Busycotypus canaliculatus (Linnaeus, 1758) ( Memento of the original from September 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2 archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Journal of Shellfish Research 30 (3), pp. 901-903.

^ ^A ^b Matthew C. Ferner: Environmental modification of chemosensory interactions between predators and prey: The world according to whelks . Dissertation, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006.

literature

Robert Tucker Abbott, Percy A. Morris: A Field Guide to Shells: Atlantic and Gulf Coasts and the West Indies . Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston 2001. Channeled Whelk, Busycotypus canaliculatus (Linnaeus, 1758) : p. 227. ISBN 978-0-618-16439-4 .
Edward E. Ruppert, Richard S. Fox: Seashore Animals of the Southeast: A Guide to Common Shallow-Water Invertebrates of the Southeastern Atlantic Coast . University of South Carolina Press, Columbia (South Carolina) 1988. Busycon : pp. 112f. ( Busycon canaliculatum, the channeled whelk )
Wilhelm Kobelt : The genera Pyrula and Fusus; together with Ficula, Bulbus, Tudicla, Busycotype, Neptunea and Euthria. Systematic Conchylia Cabinet. Verlag von Bauer & Raspe, Nuremberg 1881. pp. 45–53. V. genus. Busy type Bolten. P. 47f. No. 1. Busycon canaliculatum Lamarck sp.

Web links

Commons : Busycotypus canaliculatus - Collection of images, videos and audio files

[1] 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. 1872 6 B. Canaliculatum. The crowned fig, gmelin , Murex canaliculatus .