''Melo melo'', common name the Indian volute or bailer shell, is a very large

edible An edible item is any item that is safe for humans to eat. "Edible" is differentiated from "eatable" because it does not indicate how an item tastes, only whether it is fit to be eaten. Nonpoisonous items found in nature – such as some mushroo ...

sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Volutidae ''Volutidae'', common name volutes, are a taxonomic family of predatory sea snails that range in size from 9 mm to over 500 mm. They are marine gastropod mollusks. Most of the species have no operculum. Distribution This family of sea snails ...

, the volutes.

Distribution

The distribution of this species is restricted to

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

, from

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

and

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

, to the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phi ...

and the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

.Poutiers, J. M. (1998). Gastropods in: ''FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes: The living marine resources of the Western Central Pacific Volume 1.'' Seaweeds, corals, bivalves and gastropods. Rome, FAO, 1998. p. 598.

Habitat

This large sea snail is known to live in

littoral The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal a ...

and shallow

sublittoral The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal area ...

zones. It usually dwells in muddy bottoms at a maximum depth of nearly 20 m.

Feeding

''Melo melo'' is known to be carnivorous, as laboratory experiments have shown. It is a specialized predator of other continental shelf predatory gastropods, notably ''Hemifusus tuba'' (

Melongenidae The Melongenidae, the crown conchs and their relatives, are a taxonomic family of large to very large marine gastropods in the superfamily Buccinoidea. MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Melongenidae Gill, 1871 (1854). Accessed through: W ...

) and ''Babylonia lutosa'' (

Buccinidae The Buccinidae are a very large and diverse taxonomic family of large sea snails, often known as whelks or true whelks.Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S. (2010). Buccinidae. In: Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S.; Rosenberg, G. (2010) World Marine Mollusca database. Acc ...

). It is also a known predator of the dog conch, '' Strombus canarium'' (

Strombidae Strombidae, commonly known as the true conchs, is a taxonomic family of medium-sized to very large sea snails in the superfamily Stromboidea, and the Epifamily Neostromboidae. The term true conchs, being a common name, does not have an exact me ...

).Cob, Z. C; Arshad, A; Bujang, J. S; Ghaffar, M. A. (2009). "Age, Growth, Mortality and Population Structure of ''Strombus canarium''(Gastropoda: Strombidae): Variations in Male and Female Sub-Populations". ''Journal of Applied Sciences'' 9 (18), 3287–3297

/ref>

Shell description

The maximum shell length of this species is up to 275 mm, commonly to 175 mm. The notably large shell of ''Melo melo'' has a bulbous or nearly oval outline, with a smooth outer surface presenting distinguishable growth lines. The outside of shell colour is commonly pale orange, sometimes presenting irregular banding of brown spots, while the interior is glossy cream, becoming light yellow near its margin. The columella (mollusc), columella has three or four long and easily distinguishable columella (mollusc), columellar folds. It has a wide

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An ...

, nearly as long as the shell itself, yet this species is known to have no operculum. The shell's

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires a ...

is completely enclosed by the body whorl, which is inflated and quite large, and has a rounded shoulder with no spines. The

apex The apex is the highest point of something. The word may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional entities * Apex (comics), a teenaged super villainess in the Marvel Universe * Ape-X, a super-intelligent ape in the Squadron Supreme universe *Apex, ...

is of smooth type.

Pearls

This volute is known to produce

pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

s; however the ''Melo melo'' pearl has no nacre, unlike the pearl of a

pearl oyster ''Pinctada'' is a genus of saltwater oysters, marine bivalve mollusks in the family Pteriidae. These pearl oysters have a strong inner shell layer composed of nacre, also known as "mother of pearl". Pearl oysters are not closely related to e ...

. The GIA and CIBJO now simply use the term 'pearl' (or, where appropriate, the more descriptive term 'non-nacreous pearl') when referring to such items, rather than the previously-used term 'calcareous concretion' and, under Federal Trade Commission rules, various mollusc pearls may be referred to as 'pearls' without any qualification.Guides for the Jewelry, Precious Metals, and Pewter Industries
Ftc.gov (30 May 1996). Retrieved on 2012-04-17. The melo pearl is created by the mollusc in the same way as other pearls are created by other molluscs. See also: Conch Pearl

Human use

This volute is often collected for food by local fishermen. The shells are also often used as decoration, or as scoops for powdery substances in local markets. The shell is also traditionally utilized by the native fishermen to bail out their boats, therefore it is commonly called "bailer shell". This snail is eaten in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Melo Melo Volutidae Gastropods described in 1786 Edible animals Edible molluscs