Small arrow snail
| Small arrow snail | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Small arrow snail ( Curtitoma trevelliana ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Curtitoma trevelliana | ||||||||||||
| ( Turton , 1834) |
The small arrow snail ( Curtitoma trevelliana , frequent synonyms : Lora trevelliana , Oenopota trevelliana and Bela trevelyana ) is a snail from the family of the Mangeliidae , which, like the related cone snails, belongs to the arrow tongues ( Conoidea ) , which is mainly found in arctic waters . The snail eats many bristles , which it harpooned with its radula teeth .
features
The small arrow snail has a very thin, egg-shaped-spindle-shaped, slightly bulbous snail shell , which in adult snails reaches a length of 6 to 13 mm. The case has around 6 whorls that are slightly flattened above the shoulder. The mouth of the case is almost the same at the top and bottom, its outer lip slightly curved below the shoulder. The surface of the bowl is sculpted with inconspicuous, crosswise longitudinal folds, which become obsolete towards the center of the body, and with fine, dense, spiraling stripes. The approximately egg-shaped shape is also due to the rather short thread and the short siphon channel. The anal sinus is narrow and is close to the perimeter wall. From propebela turricula the small arrow worm distinguished by their significantly smaller size, the indistinct stepped whorls, the shorter thread and the greater number of folds (or ribs). The housing is colored whitish.
distribution
The small arrow snail is distributed arctic and circumboreal in the Arctic Ocean in the Barents Sea with the coast of Novaja Zemlja , in the Beaufort Sea , the Bering Strait and in the European Arctic Ocean , but its distribution area extends in the Atlantic Ocean along eastern Canada to Maine ( USA ) North Sea with Norway , Sweden and the British Isles , in the Pacific Ocean to California and the Sea of Japan .
The snail lives below the intertidal zone at sea depths of 20 to 200 m on sandy surfaces.
Development cycle
As with other new snails, the male mates the female with the penis of the small arrow snail, and internal fertilization takes place. The female lays egg capsules from which free-swimming Veliger larvae hatch. These metamorphose into crawling snails only after a pelagic phase.
Food and predators
The small arrow snail , like all arrow tails, is a predatory snail whose radula is studded with poisonous fangs. This gives her the opportunity to paralyze and then kill the victim. Only polychaeta (polychaeta), mainly from the family Spionidae, were observed as prey , which are harpooned with a modified radula tooth and stick to it before being devoured. The most important predators of the small arrow snail include moon snails , which pierce the shell of their victim.
literature
- George Washington Tryon: Manual of Conchology, structural and systematic, with illustrations of the species , vol. VI; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 1884. B [ela] trevelyana Turton, p. 221.
- Jack B. Pearce (1966): On Lora trevelliana (Turton) (Gastropoda: Turridae). Ophelia 3 (1), pp. 81-91.
Web links
- MJ de Kluijver, SS Ingalsuo & RH de Bruyne: Oenopota trevelliana (Turton, 1834). Mollusca of the North Sea, Marine Species Identification Portal.
- World Register of Marine Species , World Marine Mollusca database: Curtitoma trevelliana (Montagu, 1803)