Oriental moon snail
| Oriental moon snail | ||||||||||||
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Naticarius orientalis on the north coast of East Timor |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Naticarius orientalis | ||||||||||||
| ( Gmelin , 1791) |
The oriental moon snail or oriental umbilical snail ( Naticarius orientalis ) is a snail from the moon snail family that is common in the Indo-Pacific . With a housing length of up to 3.7 cm, it is one of the largest moon snails.
features
The hemispherical, quite solid snail shell of Naticarius orientalis , which in adult snails reaches up to 3 to 3.7 cm in length, has a smooth, glossy surface, with strongly protruding wrinkles and folds at the seam. The whorls are strongly arched, especially at the top of the noticeably deepened seam. The thread, which takes up about a fifth of the total height of the housing, is short and pointed. The very wide umbilicus, which is not delimited by a clear edge, has a thick, semi-cylindrical bulge in the middle, which is separated from the short and thick spindle lip by a deep, round incision. The lower angle of the slightly sloping, greatly expanded case mouth is drawn far into a point. The surface of the housing is white, light brown or fawn colored with a fine white cross band in the middle of the body, inside sometimes with a reddish sheen. The coloration can vary considerably within the species.
The operculum of the oriental moon snail is semicircular, limestone on the outside with ribs and enables the mouth of the case to be closed completely. The core is on the inside near the lower edge.
When crawling, the worm reaches two to three times the length of the casing. Radial white lines are arranged on the orange-brown body, and the outer edge of the foot is also white. The antennae have the orange-brown basic color.
Distribution and way of life
The oriental moon snail occurs in the Indian Ocean from the coast of East Africa eastward, in the Pacific Ocean to Japan , Australia , New Zealand , Palau and Kwajalein . There is a distribution gap between New Caledonia and the Marquesas Islands .
Naticarius orientalis lives on sandy soils in the intertidal zone and below a depth of 30 meters. During the day, the snail usually rests buried in the sand. Like other moon snails, the nocturnal feeding naticarius orientalis of clams and snails . The prey is grasped with the foot and a hole is drilled in the shell with the radula under the action of acid saliva, then the proboscis are guided through the hole to the meat of the victim.
Systematics
In 1791, Johann Friedrich Gmelin describes the species under the name Nerita orientalis in his extended edition of the Systema Naturae taken over by Carl von Linné , so, like Linnaeus, summarizes the umbilical snails with the barnacles in a genus Nerita . Other synonyms are Cochlis explanata Röding , 1798 and Natica eburnea Deshayes , 1838 ("ivory umbilical snail").
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rodolfo Amando Philippi: The genera Naticarius and Amaura . Systematic Conchylia Cabinet. Nuremberg, 1852. pp. 22f. No. 15. Natica eburnea (Nerita). Chemn.
- ↑ a b c 肥 後 俊 一 ・ 後 藤 芳 央 （編著） (Higo and Goto), 1993. 『日本 及 び 周 辺 地域 産 軟体動物 総 目録』 エ ル ル 貝類 出版 局, p.150 [Complete catalog of the mollusks in Japan and the surrounding area, 1993, Japanese].
- ↑ Barry Wilson (1993): Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch gastropods. Part 1 . Odyssey Publishing, Kallaroo, Western Australia, pp. 1-408.
- ^ AR Kabat (2000): Results of the Rumphius Biohistorical Expedition to Ambon (1990). Part 10. Mollusca, Gastropoda, Naticidae . Zoological mededelingen. Volume 73: 345-380.
- ^ Johann Friedrich Gmelin (1791): Systema naturae per regna tria naturae secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis, Caroli a Linné , p. 3669, genus 329: Nerita, p. 3673, species 12: N. orientalis. 12. N. testa subglobosa nitida laevissima: spirae basi subrugosa, columella nivea.
- ↑ World Register of Marine Species , World Marine Mollusca database: Naticarius orientalis (Gmelin, 1791)
