Melo amphora
Bailer Snail
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Mollusca
Class
Gastropoda
Order
Neogastropoda
Family
Volutidae
Genus
Melo
Species
Melo amphora
Colours
Distinguishing features
Distinguishing features still need to be specified.
Size
- Up to 40 cm (shell length at Lizard Island)
Synonyms
Comments
Guardian: Billy Simmons, Paul Myers and Alex McGeoch
by Geoffrey Shuetrim
Interesting facts
-
This is not just a hunter but it hunts the hunters, chasing down other predatory molluscs with its extremely large foot.
When it catches its prey it wraps them up in its foot and then releases paralysing toxin (acid). It then carries them away, sometimes burying itself in the sand to digest them. It can grow into a very large shell (50cm long) and was used to bail out water in boats (bailer shell). It was also used by the aborigines long ago to carry water and traded among tribes such that shells 2000 years old have been found in the desert.
It can create a rare yellow pearl that can grow the size of a golf ball and was worn by emperors (only 9 have ever been auctioned, some costing hundreds of thousands of dollars).
Lays the most incredible egg casing, which is like plastic and has a hole through the centre to aerate the eggs (about 100 eggs).
Distribution
©Atlas of Living Australia: Australian distribution
Web resources
References
- Wilson, B. (1993). Australian Marine Shells Odyssey Publishing, Kallaroo, Western Australia.