Lightning whelk
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| Lightning whelk | ||||||||||||||
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| Busycon perversum (Linné, 1758.) |
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Busycon contrarium |
The lightning whelk, Busycon perversum, is an edible species of very large predatory sea snail or whelk, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Melongenidae, the busycon whelks and crown conches. This species has a left-handed or sinistral shell.
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[edit] Distribution
This species is native to southeastern North America: off New Jersey south to Florida and the Gulf states.
[edit] Habitat
Lightning whelks can be found in the sandy or muddy substrate of shallow embayments.
[edit] Life habits
These whelks feed primarily on marine bivalves.
[edit] Lightning whelks and knobbed whelks
The lightning whelk shares many characteristics with its sister species the knobbed whelk Busycon carica, but there are some important differences:
- Lightning whelks are sinistral in coiling while knobbed whelks are dextral
- Lightning whelks have a lower spire than the knobbed whelk
- The knobs of the lightning whelk are usually less well-developed than those of the knobbed whelk
- Lightning whelks are diurnal while knobbed whelks are active both day and night
- Lightning whelks prefer to stay in deeper waters than the knobbed whelks when feeding on mud flats
[edit] Human use
- For thousands of years Native Americans used these animals as food, and used their shells for tools, ornaments, and containers.
- The lightning whelk is the State Shell of Texas
- Native Americans may have believed the sinistral nature of the lightning whelk shell made it a sacred object.
[edit] Lightning whelks in popular culture
- In the 1994 video game Final Fantasy VI, a lightning whelk is the first boss the player encounters. It is depicted as a large snail that absorbs thunder energy into its shell and releases it as an electrical attack.
[edit] References
- Marquardt, W.M. 1992 Shell Artifacts from the Caloosahatchee Area. In Culture and Environment in the Domain of the Calusa, edited by W. H. Marquardt, pp. 191-228. Institute of Archaeology and Paleoenvironmental Studies, Monograph 1. University of Florida, Gainesville.
- Paine, Robert T. 1962 Ecological Diversification in Sympatric Gastropods of the Genus Busycon. Evolution 16(4):515-523.
- Pulley, T.E. 1959 Busycon perversum (Linné) and some related species. Rice Institute Pamphlet, 46:70-89.
- Wise, J.B., G. Harasewych, & R. Dillon. 2004. Population divergence in the sinistral Busycon whelks of North America, with special reference to the east Florida ecotone. Marine Biology, 145:1163-1179; SMSFP Contrib.538.
