Giant frog slug

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Giant frog slug
Tutufa bubo, Landaagiraavaru, Baa, Maldives. Two arms of a captured starfish, Linckia multifora, protrude from under the operculum, on the right a red Fromia indica

Tutufa bubo , Landaagiraavaru, Baa, Maldives . Two arms of a captured starfish, Linckia multifora, protrude from under the operculum , on the right a red Fromia indica

Systematics
Subordination : Hypsogastropoda
Partial order : Littorinimorpha
Superfamily : Cassoidea
Family : Frog snails (Bursidae)
Genre : Tutufa
Type : Giant frog slug
Scientific name
Tutufa bubo
( Linnaeus , 1758)
Tutufa bubo , Réunion
Housing from Tutufa bubo
Housing from Tutufa bubo

The giant frog snail ( Tutufa bubo ) is a large predatory living snail from the family of the frog snails (genus Tutufa ), which in the Red Sea and the Indo-Pacific is widespread.

features

The snail shell of Tutufa bubo has a moderately high thread, moderately widened lips of the uniformly flesh-colored to white, approximately circular housing mouth and a moderately long front siphon canal with a large fasciole. The outer surface of the case is sculptured with three or more larger rows of compressed nodes, which are usually largest at the periphery and the varices. In many people, the body circumference is formed at two angles by a lower row of nodes approximately the size of the peripheral nodes. The rest of the housing surface has many dense series of irregular, tightly rounded folds, so that the entire surface appears coarse and irregularly knotty. The outer lip of the case mouth is widened wide, its outer edge fingered by outer ribs. The inside of the housing is smooth in large adults, but in juveniles it has a row of 12 to 14 small, pointed nodules. The inner lip is also broadly widened with a narrow parietal rib that narrows the very short anal canal, and folded over by low, simple folds over the entire height under the parietal rib. The fasciole on the siphonal canal can be very pronounced, but usually less than in Tutufa bufo. The outside of the housing surface is cream-colored to pale brown and fine and irregularly stained with medium to dark red-brown paint splatters. The house reaches around 25 cm in full-grown snails, height with a diameter of around 16 cm, but sometimes becomes up to 30 cm high.

distribution and habitat

Tutufa bubo is common in the Red Sea and the Indo-Pacific . The snail is mainly found on coral reefs and rocks below the intertidal zone down to depths of 180 m and only occasionally in the intertidal zone.

Life cycle

Like other frog snails, Tutufa bubo is segregated. The male mates with the female with his penis . Veliger larvae hatch from the eggs and live as plankton until they have metamorphosed into the finished snail.

food

Tutufa bubo feeds on echinoderms , including starfish .

literature

  • AG Beu (1998): Australian gastropods of the family Bursidae. Part 1. Sydney 2003, pp. 272-277.
  • JR Houbrick, V. Fretter (1969): Some aspects of the functional anatomy and biology of Cymatium and Bursa. Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London 38, pp. 415-429.

Web links

Commons : Giant Frog Snail ( Tutufa bubo )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files