Melo miltonis

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Southern bailer
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Mollusca Class: Gastropoda Order: Sorbeoconcha Family: Volutidae Genus: Melo Species: M. miltonis
Binomial name
Melo miltonis (Griffith, E. & E. Pidgeon)

Melo miltonis, the southern bailer or southern baler, is a large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Volutidae, the volutes.

This species is found amongst shallow seagrass beds, on sand, and around reefs - at depths up to 20 m. The range extends from the Houtman Abrolhos, off the Western Australian coast, to South Australia.

The length of this shell may be up to 450 mm, with distinctive cream and brown markings. The foot, which is very large, is also covered in concentric patterns of the same colours. The species uses this foot to engulf other molluscs.

Southern bailer shells have long been used by the peoples of Australia to carry or remove water, producing the bailer appellation to many volutes of this genus.

[edit] References

• Morrison, Sue; Storrie, Ann (1999). Wonders of Western Waters: The Marine Life of South-Western Australia. CALM, 78. ISBN 0 7309 6894 4.