Nucella

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Nucella
Nucella emarginata with egg capsules, Morro Strand State Beach, Morro Bay, California

Nucella emarginata with egg capsules, Morro Strand State Beach, Morro Bay , California

Systematics
Order : Sorbeoconcha
Subordination : Hypsogastropoda
Partial order : New snails (Neogastropoda)
Superfamily : Muricoidea
Family : Spiny snails (Muricidae)
Genre : Nucella
Scientific name
Nucella
Röding , 1798

Nucella is the name of a genus of medium-sized snails from the family of spiny snails , which is represented circumboreally in the North Atlantic and North Pacific .

features

The medium-sized, solid, double-conical to spindle-shaped or egg-shaped cases of the Nucella species have a well-developed thread with up to 7 whorls and a short siphon channel. The sculpting is not very pronounced, so there may be axially low transverse ribs or lamellae. Fine lines, narrow longitudinal grooves or wider longitudinal ribs can appear on spiral sculptures. On the inside of the outer lip, teeth can appear or be missing, some species also have a sting here. Otherwise there are no spikes on the housing. The columella is smooth. The operculum is horny with the nucleus at the front edge.

The snails have a flattened head with two antennae, on each of which there is an eye about a third of the length from the base. The base is small and does not protrude over the edge of the case. The accessory drilling organ (ABO), an acid gland for dissolving lime, is located on the sole of the foot.

The snails are separate sexes with internal fertilization. The eggs are laid in mostly yellowish, more or less bottle-shaped egg capsules, each containing several hundred eggs, of which only about 10 to 25 develop, while the others serve as nursing eggs. The entire development of the Veliger stage takes place in the egg capsule, so that after several months finished small snails hatch. Among other things, based on this criterion, but also on the basis of the location of the ABO, the genus Nucella is differentiated from Purpura and Thais .

The snails of the genus Nucella feed mainly on barnacles and mussels , to a lesser extent on snails . In the shell of the prey a hole is drilled with the radula under the action of an acidic secretion from the ABO and through this the long, thin proboscis is then brought to the victim. In other cases, the snail reaches the victim's meat by forcing its proboscis through the gaps in the shell.

History of the system

Nucella means “nut” in Latin . The generic name Nucella is first mentioned in 1798 by Peter Friedrich Röding in the catalog of the Conchyliensammlung of Joachim Friedrich Bolten with 5 species. Of these, however, only one species name is still valid today, Nucella lapillus , with which one of the other species names, Nucella theobroma , is synonymous . This species Nucella lapillus , the type species of the genus, was described by Linnaeus as Buccinum lapillus and placed by Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck in 1822 in the genus Purpura Bruguière 1789, which included over 50 species. The northern purple snail was known for a long time under the name Purpura lapillus . A revision of the genus Purpura restricted it to a few species of the Indo-Pacific , including the type species Purpura persica . Another generic name was required for Purpura lapillus . Von Röding had two names, Nucella and Thais . The Nucella lapillus mentioned by Röding did not match the type of Linnaeus, which led some authors to name the species Thais lapillus . The Nucella theobroma mentioned by Röding there is actually the Nordic purple snail, so that ultimately the choice had to fall on the oldest genus name Nucella .

According to the World Register of Marine Species, the genus Nucella includes the following species:

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ G. Thomas Watters, Ohio State University: Digital Murex - Nucella Röding, 1798 ( Memento of the original from July 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.biosci.ohio-state.edu archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
  2. ↑ Louis Charles Kiener : Spécies général et iconographie des coquilles vivantes: comprenant la collection du Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Paris, la collection Lamarck, celle du Prince Masséna ... et les déecouvertes réecentes des voyageurs . Chez Rousseau: J.-B. Baillière, Paris 1835. Pourpre. Purpura.
  3. ^ German translation of the term ABO (accessory boring organ) in: Cleveland P. Hickman, Larry S. Robert, Allan Larson, Helen l'Anson, David J. Eisenhour: Zoologie . Translated from the English by Thomas Lazar. German adaptation by Wolf-Michael Weber. Pearson Germany, Munich 2008. 1347 pages. P. 510.
  4. ↑ a b Melbourne R. Carriker (1981): Shell penetration and feeding by naticacean and muricacean predatory gastropods: a synthesis (PDF; 12.5 MB) . Malacologia 20 (2), pp. 403-422.
  5. ↑ a b c J. H. Crothers (1985), p. 341f.
  6. ↑ 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 130, Nucella. The Nut. 1641 1 N. Reticulata. The barred nut. P. 131, 1642 2 N. Moschatellina. The Muscat nut. 1643 3 N. Macira. The big Muscat nut. 1644 4 N. Lapillus. The stoned nut. Gmel. Buccinum rusticum. 1645 5 N. Theobroma. The cocoa nut. Gmel. Buccinum filosum .
  7. ^ World Register of Marine Species , Nucella Röding, 1798

Web links

Commons : Nucella  - collection of images, videos and audio files