Vermicularia spirata

Vermicularia spirata, common name the West Indian worm-shell or the West Indian wormsnail, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Turritellidae.[1] Juveniles can move around, but larger individuals become sessile.

Vermicularia spirata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Mollusca
Class:
Gastropoda
(unranked):
clade Caenogastropoda
clade Sorbeoconcha
Superfamily:
Cerithioidea
Family:
Turritellidae
Subfamily:
Vermiculariinae
Genus:
Vermicularia
Species:
V. spirata
Binomial name
Vermicularia spirata
(Philippi, 1836)
Synonyms[1]

Vermetus quadrangulus Philippi, 1848
Vermetus spiratus Philippi, 1836
Vermiculus spiratus (Philippi, 1836)
Vermiculus spiratus var. bicarinata Môrch, 1861
Vermiculus spiratus var. melanosclera Môrch, 1861
Vermiculus spiratus var. quadrangularis Môrch, 1861
Vermiculus spiratus var. scalaris Môrch, 1861
Vermiculus spiratus var. teres Môrch, 1861
Vermiculus spiratus var. ungulina Môrch, 1861

Distribution

Vermicularia spirata occurs in shallow water in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Its range includes Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, the Lesser Antilles and Puerto Rico.[1]

Description

The maximum recorded shell length is 90 mm.[2]

Habitat

The minimum recorded depth for this species is 3 m; the maximum recorded depth is 80 m.[2]

Biology

Vermicularia spirata is a filter feeder and is a protandrous hermaphrodite; individuals start their adult life as males, at which stage they are free-living, but later become females and attach themselves to various substrates. Many are found embedded in the tissues of the white encrusting sponge Geodia gibberosa.[3]

Male individuals, being motile, are able to move to the vicinity of the aperture of the sessile females before liberating sperm into the water. Capsules containing eggs are brooded in the mantle cavities of the females. The ova are about 300μm in diameter and the veliger larvae that hatch have two and a half whorls of shell and are about 600μm long. These crawl or swim away and soon undergo metamorphosis into juveniles which are all males. They feed on phytoplankton and grow rapidly.[3]

In Bermuda, the endemic hermit crab Calcinus verrillii sometimes uses the vacated tube of Vermicularia spirata as a home, even though it is non-mobile.[4]

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References
  1. Vermicularia spirata (Philippi, 1836). Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 17 May 2010.
  2. Welch J. J. (2010). "The "Island Rule" and Deep-Sea Gastropods: Re-Examining the Evidence". PLOS One 5(1): e8776. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008776.
  3. Bieler, Rüdiger; Hadfield, Michael G. (1990). "Reproductive biology of the sessile gastropod Vermicularia spirata (Cerithioidea: Turritellidae)". Journal of Molluscan Studies. 56 (2): 205–219. doi:10.1093/mollus/56.2.205.
  4. Rodrigues, Lisa J.; Dunham, David W.; Coates, Kathryn A. (2000). "Shelter Preferences in the Endemic Bermudian Hermit Crab, Calcinus verrilli (Rathbun, 1901) (Decapoda, Anomura)". Crustaceana. 73 (6): 737–750. doi:10.1163/156854000504769. JSTOR 20106336.
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