Puperita pupa
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Housing of puperita pupa |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
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| ( Linnaeus , 1767) |
Puperita pupa is in salt water and brackish water live snail from the family of neritidae (Neritidae) that the order of Neritomorpha counts. It is common in the coastal area and around the islands of the western Atlantic , especially the Caribbean . Thesnail,also known as the zebra mermaid , differs significantly from the other so-called zebras in its black and white color.
features
The spherical, lusterless shell of Puperita pupa , which in fully grown snails can grow up to 13 mm high and reach a diameter of 8 to 14 mm, is smooth or has particularly weak growth stripes towards the front. The thread protrudes a bit, is flat at the top and a bit angular. The seam is torn in places and descends sharply in front. The case mouth is slightly crooked and more or less pale orange in color. The outer edge, separated from the columellar surface by a clear furrow above and below, is rounded, the inner edge is slightly indented and has about 5 small teeth. The columellar surface is small, flat, whitish, yellow to the rear, without any clear delimitation at the top and a semicircular edge at the bottom. The muscular bar is poorly developed or absent.
The lackluster surface of the case has black stripes on the white base color, the small or large numbers of which are more or less curved and are mostly connected to each other. They run along the growth strips or a little further backwards, rarely further forwards. The welts are connected by zigzags or ramifications. New welts are ramifications or start over. Sometimes irregular networks of black lines are formed. There is a smooth transition to forms with white drops and three zones of larger white spots on a black background, which were previously described as a separate species Puperita tristis (originally Neritina tristis d'Orb. Vs. Neritina pupa L.). Experiments have shown that these are animals of one and the same species that develop differently depending on the environmental conditions. Animals that live in salt water form white shells with black lines, while black shells with white dots are formed in brackish water .
The operculum is pale orange on both sides and light brown on the hem. The inner edge has a blunt, wide protrusion. The rib, which is sharply compressed, is pale. The cone is very crooked, just as tall and more intense yellow.
Geographical distribution
Puperita pupa is widespread in the salt water on the coasts and islands of the western Atlantic and in the brackish water of the estuaries, for example in the Caribbean Sea , Florida , the Bahamas , the Cayman Islands , Colombia , Costa Rica , Cuba , Gulf of Mexico , Hispaniola , Jamaica , the Lesser Antilles , Mexico and San Andrés (Colombia) .
Habitat and way of life
Puperita pupa lives on the coast in the intertidal zone on rocks that are exposed to the surf, in tidal pools with constant salinity or also at times very high salinity due to evaporation and in brackish water as well as in pools that contain almost fresh water due to precipitation.
The snail is diurnal during high water. If the tide pools dry out or become very warm, the snails sometimes leave the water in large numbers.
Puperita pupa , like all sea snails, is of separate sex. The male mates with the female with his penis . The female attaches egg capsules to hard substrate, each containing around 15 fertile eggs. The development proceeds via free-swimming Veliger larvae and subsequent metamorphosis into finished snails.
Puperita pupa feeds in particular on diatoms and cyanobacteria that grow on the surface of the rocks.
Individual evidence
- ^ Russell L. Minton, Ross W. Gundersen (2001): Puperita tristis (d'Orbigny, 1842) (Gastropoda: Neritidae) is an ecotype of Puperita pupa (Linnaeus, 1767) . American Malacological Bulletin 16 (1/2), pp. 13-20.
- ^ Burton Vaughan, Thomas E. Eichhorst (2006): Thoughts on Species & Speciation - Phenoplasticity . American Conchologist, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. September 26-29, 2006.
- ↑ As early as 1879 Eduard von Martens pointed to this flowing transition between Neritina pupa L. and Neritina tristis d'Orb. down.
- ↑ World Register of Marine Species , World Marine Mollusca database: Puperita pupa (Linnaeus, 1767)
literature
- Eduard von Martens : The genus Neritina. Systematic Conchylia Cabinet. Nuremberg, 1879. pp. 130ff. No. 70 Neritina pupa L.
- Ferdinand Starmühlner (1988): Results of the Austro-French Hydrobiological Mission 1979 to Guadeloupe, Dominica and Martinique (Lesser Antilles). Part II: Contributions to the knowledge of the fresh and brackish water mollusks of Guadeloupe, Dominica and Martinique (PDF; 27.7 MB) . Annals of the Natural History Museum in Vienna 90 B, pp. 221–340.
