Lightning whelk

The lightning whelk, scientific name Busycon contrarium, is an edible species of very large predatory sea snail or whelk, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Buccinidae, the busycon whelks. This species has a left-handed or sinistral shell. It eats mostly bivalves, sucking their mass up with its proboscis.

Contents 1 Distribution 2 Habitat 3 Life habits 4 Busycon contrarium and B. carica 5 Human use 6 References 7 External links

Distribution

This species is native to southeastern North America,south to Florida and the Gulf states.

Habitat

Lightning whelks can be found in the sandy or muddy substrate of shallow embayments.

Life habits

These whelks feed primarily on marine bivalves.

Busycon contrarium and B. carica

This species 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

Human use

For thousands of years Native Americans used these animals as food, and used their shells for tools, ornaments, containers and shell gorgets.^[1] They may have believed the sinistral nature of the lightning whelk shell made it a sacred object.

The lightning whelk is the State Shell of Texas.

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.

External links

• Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Snails of the Sea
• Texas Parks and Wildlife, lightning whelks

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