- Drupella cornus
-
Drupella cornus 
Drupella cornus Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Mollusca Class: Gastropoda (unranked): clade Caenogastropoda
clade Hypsogastropoda
clade NeogastropodaSuperfamily: Muricoidea Family: Muricidae Subfamily: Rapaninae Genus: Drupella Species: D. cornus Binomial name Drupella cornus
(Röding, 1798)Synonyms[1] - Drupa cornus Röding, 1798
- Drupa elata (Blainville, 1832)
- Drupa spectrum (Reeve, 1846)
- Morula elata (Blainville, 1832)
- Purpura (Ricinula) martiniana Anton, 1839
- Purpura baccata Hombron & Jacquinot, 1854
- Purpura elata Blainville, 1832
- Ricinula spectrum Reeve, 1846
- Sistrum elatum (Blainville, 1832)
- Thais cornus
Drupella cornus, common name : the horn drupe, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Muricidae, the murex snails or rock snails.[1]
Contents
Description
The shell size of an adult varies between 28 mm and 40 mm. This whitish shell shows four rows of spiny, pointed nodules with numerous smaller spines between. The oval aperture is yellow. The outer lip is with three to four teeth.
Drupella cornus lays benthic egg capsules, which hatch into free-swimming planktonic veliger larvae [2]
Drupella cornus is a predator of living coral, grazing on the coral tissue. An abundance of this snail can cause significant destruction to the hard-coral cover on reefs. There is a possible link between coral diseases and an outbreak of this snail.[3]. The snail is attracted to Montipora corals when these corals secrete montiporic acids[4]
Habitat
Drupella cornus commonly occurs on or under tabular corals of the genera Acropora and Montipora or on hard substrates in the lower intertidal zone and shallow sublittoral zone. [5]
Distribution
This species is distributed in the Red Sea and in the Indian Ocean along Aldabra, Chagos, Kenya, Madagascar, the Mascarene Basin, Mozambique, Tanzania, KwaZuluNatal and the Indo-Pacific.
References
- ^ a b Drupella cornus (Röding, 1798). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=212155 on 24 April 2010.
- ^ Turner S.J., The egg capsules and early life history of the corallivorous gastropod Drupella cornus (Roeding, 1798)., The Veliger. Vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 16-25. 1992; accessed : 18 November 2010
- ^ Antonius, A.; B. Riegl. "Coral diseases and Drupella cornus invasion in the Red Sea". Coral Reefs 17 (1): 48. doi:10.1007/s003380050093. http://www.springerlink.com/content/8vj3hchtnlqwrjvt/. Retrieved 18 November 2010.
- ^ Masaki, Kita; et al. (2005). "Feeding attractants for the muricid gastropod Drupella cornus, a coral predator". Tetrahedron Letters 46 (49): 8583–8585. doi:10.1016/j.tetlet.2005.09.182. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6THS-4HC0PW3-4&_user=10&_coverDate=12%2F05%2F2005&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1546363360&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=44e34c75579a4416ffd4002976934351&searchtype=a. Retrieved 18 November 2010.
- ^ Johnson, Michael S.; Kelley Holborn and Robert Black. "Fine-scale patchiness and genetic heterogeneity of recruits of the corallivorous gastropod Drupella cornus". Journal of Marine Biology 117 (1): 91–96. doi:10.1007/BF00346429. http://www.springerlink.com/content/n066v50673044332/.
- Spry, J.F. (1961). The sea shells of Dar es Salaam: Gastropods. Tanganyika Notes and Records 56
- Drivas, J. & M. Jay (1988). Coquillages de La Réunion et de l'île Maurice
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