Calyptraea chinensis, common name the Chinese hat snail or Chinese hat shell, is a species of small sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Calyptraeidae, the slipper snails or slipper limpets, cup-and-saucer snails, and Chinese hat snails.[1]
| Calyptraea chinensis | |
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| Calyptraea chinensis | |
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| Species: | C. chinensis
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| Calyptraea chinensis (Linnaeus, 1758)
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Calyptraea sinensis (Linnaeus, 1758) | |
Description
The thin shel of this species has the shape of an almost symmetrical cone (like a Chinese hat or conical Asian hat), 7 mm high and 15 - 21 mm wide. The internal partition shows a partly curved edge, running from the apex to the edge of the shell, and partly covering the aperture. The presence of this internal shelf distinguishes this species easily from the true limpets. The aperture is round and adapted to the substrate. The shell is creamy white, and glossy on the inside.
Calyptraea chinensis is a filter feeder, binding fine food particles with mucus. Like all slipper limpets, this species is a protandrous hermaphrodite, but the stages of change from male to female have not been clearly defined. Unlike Crepidula fornicata (the American slipper limpet), this species does not form stacks. The males and females only come together for copulation. [2]. The species does not have a pelagic larval phase. The veliger stage is passed in capsules fixed to the substrate, and guarded under the shell of the parent. The young hatch as crawling post-veliger larvæ. [3]
Distribution
Calyptraea chinensis occurs in Norht-West Africa, in the Mediterranean, the North Sea, the Black Sea and the Atlantic Ocean They can be found in littoral and sublittoral zones along sheltered, rocky shores and muddy or silty hard grounds, clinging to a hard substrate, such as stones, living oysters [4] and other shells. It also occurs on the northern and western coasts of Britain and Ireland, but is absent from the North Sea and the English Channel.
Calyptraea chinensis is known in fossil state from the Pliocene and the Early Pleistocene. [5]
References
- ^ a b Calyptraea chinensis (Linnaeus, 1758). Gofas, S. (2009). Calyptraea chinensis (Linnaeus, 1758). In: Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S.; Rosenberg, G. (2009) World Marine Mollusca database. Accessed through the World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&i on 2010-06-03 .
- ^ Wyatt, H. V. (1961). "The Reproduction, Growth, and Distribution of Calyptraea chinensis (L.)". Journal of Animal Ecology. 30 (2): 283–302. Retrieved 2010-06-04.
- ^ Wyatt, H.V. (1960). "Response of Larvæ of Calyptraea chinensis (L) to Light". Nature. 186 (328). doi:10.1038/186328a0. Retrieved 2010-06-04.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Minchin, D. (2006). "Further Range Extensions of the Marine Gastropod Calyptraea chinensis (L.) in Ireland". The Irish Naturalists' Journal. 28 (5): 200–203. Retrieved 2010-06-04.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Norton P.E.P., Marine Molluscan Assemblages in the Early Pleistocene of Sidestrand, Bramerton and the Royal Society Borehole at Ludham, Norfolk, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, Vol. 253, No. 784 (Dec. 21, 1967), pp. 161-200
- Collins pocket guide, Sea Shore of Britain and Europe, HarperCollinsPublishers, London, 1996, ISBN 0 00 219955 6