Natural History Observations on the Busyconine Whelks Busycon Contrarium (Conrad) and Busycotypus Spiratum (Lamarck)

Kent, Bretton W.

doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.mollus.a065683

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…An early study in Florida waters found whelks in the family Buccinidae present at 0.04 m -2 (Menzel & Nichy 1958). Few gastropod studies have revisited sample sites decades later, but in 1977 to 1979, the 1958 study was replicated, and, based on declining mean size, absence of larger size classes, and densities of around 0.0016 m -2 , whelks were considered to be overharvested in Florida (Kent 1983). The density of whelks in Florida seagrass beds measured in the present study ranged from 0 to 0.0175 m -2 but was almost always less than 0.008 m -2 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Densities of Large Marine Gastropods in Seagrass, Oyster Reef, and Sandy Habitats in Tampa Bay and along the Gulf Coast of Florida

Geiger

Levine

Stephenson

et al. 2020

Journal of Shellfish Research

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Marine gastropods in Florida are harvested by the marine-life trade, tourists (for shells), and traditional commercial fisheries, but stocks are not formally assessed for most species. The main goal of this project was to estimate biological variables that may be used to evaluate the Species of Greatest Conservation Need status of the banded tulip Cinctura lilium and six other large marine gastropod species that are commonly encountered in the targeted habitats. The principal target, C. lilium, was listed in the 2012 State Wildlife Action Plan. The densities and size structures of C. lilium and six co-occurring species of large marine gastropods in Tampa Bay were examined to evaluate population dynamics, seasonal variation, and habitat preferences of these species. Long-term trends in the densities of large, predatory marine gastropods in 10 regions from 2009 to 2017 were included. In Tampa Bay, strong habitat preferences were observed for all species studied: C. lilium and Melongena corona were most likely to be observed on oyster reefs, and Fasciolaria tulipa was found only in seagrass, whereas Strombus alatus, Triplofusus gigantea, Sinistrofulgur sinistrum, and Fulguropsis spirata were more common on soft sediments. Seasonal variations in densities were weak; seasonal differences in size structure were more pronounced. The smallest individuals of C. lilium appeared in spring and summer; F. spirata, S. alatus, and S. sinistrum reached a detectable size in fall. The smallest detectable M. corona appeared in winter. Regionally, there were more gastropods in southwestern bay grass beds (Tampa Bay, Sarasota Bay, and Pine Island Sound) than in coastal seagrass beds (Big Bend, Citrus, Hernando, Pasco, and coastal Pinellas) or northern bays (St. Joseph Bay and St. Andrew Bay), and each region had characteristic species. As a group, tulip snails exhibited modest local declines in densities at two sites, whereas the whelks and T. gigantea varied annually but did not exhibit consistent trends during 2009 to 2017. The present study establishes a baseline of abundance for seven species of common marine gastropods and recommends expanded monitoring in multiple habitats to improve future analyses of abundance trends.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Densities of Large Marine Gastropods in Seagrass, Oyster Reef, and Sandy Habitats in Tampa Bay and along the Gulf Coast of Florida

Geiger

Levine

Stephenson

et al. 2020

Journal of Shellfish Research

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“…We assumed that members of each species pair had similar behaviours, growth rates and habitat preferences, such that encounter rates with crab predators in the environment were comparable. These assumptions are reasonable for whelks given what is known about their biology and ecology (Magalhaes 1948;Kent 1983;Kraeuter et al 1989;Dietl 2003), but are more speculative in nature for the studied cone species.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crab scars reveal survival advantage of left-handed snails

Dietl

Hendricks

2006

Biol. Lett.

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Biological asymmetries are important elements of the structure and function of many living organisms. Using the Plio-Pleistocene fossil record of crab predation on morphologically similar pairs of right-and left-handed snail species, we show here for the first time, contrary to traditional wisdom, that rare left-handed coiling promotes survival from attacks by righthanded crabs. This frequency-dependent result influences the balance of selection processes that maintain left-handedness at the species level and parallels some social interactions in human cultures, such as sports that involve dual contests between opponents of opposite handedness.

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“…Kicking and biting are antipredatory and competition‐related behaviours in some buccinoidean gastropods (Weldon & Hoffman, 1979; Kent, 1981; Weldon, 1981). The use of force during predation is limited to shell‐wedging and shell‐chipping by some muricid and buccinoidean neogastropods (Wells, 1958; Paine, 1962; Kent, 1983; Vermeij, 1993; Dietl, 2003a, b, 2004). The most overt aggressive behaviour in shell‐bearing molluscs occurs in venomous gastropods of the Conidae, some of which kill fish and molluscs for food and use envenomation for defence (Olivera, 2002).…”

Section: Sound Silence and Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sound reasons for silence: why do molluscs not communicate acoustically?

Vermeij

2010

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society

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Many adaptively beneficial states of form, behaviour and physiology are absent in large parts of the evolutionary tree of life. Although the causes of these absences can never be fully known, insights into the possibilities and limitations of adaptive evolution can be gained by examining the conditions that would be necessary for the forbidden phenotypes to evolve. Here, the case of acoustic communication in molluscs is considered. The production of sound as a warning to predators or as a means to attract mates is widespread among arthropods and vertebrates, both on land and in water, but is unknown among molluscs, even though many derived clades of gastropods and cephalopods are characterized by internal fertilization and by the evolution of long-distance visual and chemical signalling. Many molluscs possess suitable hard parts -shell, operculum and jaws -for producing sound, but most shell-bearing molluscs lack the agility or aggression necessary to cope with high-activity enemies attracted to an acoustic beacon. Their evolutionary background, arising from the generally passive adaptations of molluscs and other animals with low metabolic rates, prevents selection favouring communication by sound, and indeed favours silence. Several clades of shell-bearing gastropods and cephalopods were identified in which sound production has the greatest potential to arise or to be discovered.

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Natural History Observations on the Busyconine Whelks Busycon Contrarium (Conrad) and Busycotypus Spiratum (Lamarck)

Cited by 13 publications

References 0 publications

Densities of Large Marine Gastropods in Seagrass, Oyster Reef, and Sandy Habitats in Tampa Bay and along the Gulf Coast of Florida

Densities of Large Marine Gastropods in Seagrass, Oyster Reef, and Sandy Habitats in Tampa Bay and along the Gulf Coast of Florida

Crab scars reveal survival advantage of left-handed snails

Sound reasons for silence: why do molluscs not communicate acoustically?

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