Faunus ater

Faunus ater
A shell of Faunus ater
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
(unranked): clade Caenogastropoda

clade Sorbeoconcha

Superfamily: Cerithioidea
Family: Pachychilidae
Genus: Faunus
de Montfort, 1810
Species: F. ater
Binomial name
Faunus ater
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Faunus ater (Linnaeus, 1758). Museum specimens.

Faunus ater is a species of brackish water snail with an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Pachychilidae.[1]

Faunus ater is the only species within the genus Faunus.[1]

Distribution

The distribution of Faunus ater includes:

Description

The periostracum is thick, and the color of the periostracum is dark brown or black.[1] The shell has about 20 whorls.[1] The apical whorls may be eroded in older snails.[1] The aperture is ovate and white.[1] The shell is unique among Cerithioidea, because it has two deep sinuses: an anal sinus which is close to the suture and an anterior sinus more forward in the aperture.[1] The height of the aperture is about one-fifth of the height of the shell.[1]

The height of the shell is usually 50–60 mm, but can be up to 90 mm.[1]

The operculum is oval, corneous and dark brown in color.[1]

The snail has a broad snout.[1] The radula is large and is located in a correspondingly large buccal mass.[1]

Ecology

This snail lives in slightly brackish water.[1] It has also been reported from freshwater.[1] It is the only pachychilid species that lives in brackish water; the other species in the family are freshwater snails.

The population density can reach up to 6700 snails per m².[1]

This snail probably feeds by grazing.[1]

It is oviparous.[1] It probably has free-swimming larvae.[1]

Human use

This snail is used as a food source for humans in the Philippines and in Thailand.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Lok A. F. S. L., Ang W. F., Ng P. X., Ng B. Y. Q. & Tan S. K. (2011). "Status and distribution of Faunus ater (Linnaeus, 1758) (Mollusca: Cerithioidea) in Singapore". Nature in Singapore 4: 115-121. PDF.
  2. ↑ Solem A. (1953). "Marine and fresh-water mollusks of the Solomon Islands". Fieldiana Zoology 34(22): 213-227. page 220.

Further reading

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