''Notocochlis chemnitzii'', or Chemnitz' moon snail, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

. It was first described to science in 1840 by Ludwig Karl Georg Pfieffer. The animal is likely named after

conchologist Conchology () is the study of mollusc shells. Conchology is one aspect of malacology, the study of molluscs; however, malacology is the study of molluscs as whole organisms, whereas conchology is confined to the study of their shells. It includ ...

Johann Hieronymus Chemnitz Johann Hieronymus Chemnitz (10 October 1730, Magdeburg – 12 October 1800, Copenhagen) was a German clergyman and a conchologist. From 1759 to 1768 he was Chaplain of the Danish Embassy in Vienna, then garrison Chaplain in Helsingør and Copen ...

Description

The shell is smooth. There are four to five whorls with a short spire. It is grayish-blue to grayish-yellow, with arrow-shaped bands of brown and white. Some individuals may have a white band on the upper part of their whorls. The interior of the shell is brown. The shell has a maximum length of 33 mm (1.3 inches) and a diameter of 31 mm. The operculum is white and smooth.

Distribution

These snails are found from

Baja California Sur Baja California Sur (; 'South Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California Sur ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California Sur), is the least populated state and the 31st admitted state of the 32 federal ent ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

, including the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja Ca ...

. This species is also found in the Galapagos Islands. They live in the

intertidal zone The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of habitats with various species o ...

, down to 3 meters (10 feet) deep, on sand and mud flats.

Life history

This moon snail preys on small

bivalves Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of marine and freshwater molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hinged parts. As a group, bival ...

. It is actively mobile, hunting on soft seabeds for buried clams. It uses an abrasive appendage called a

radula The radula (, ; plural radulae or radulas) is an anatomical structure used by molluscs for feeding, sometimes compared to a tongue. It is a minutely toothed, chitinous ribbon, which is typically used for scraping or cutting food before the food ...

to drill into the shells of small clams. Once inside, it secretes digestive fluids and then feeds on the clam slurry that results. There is some evidence that one of the species it preys on is '' Chionista fluctifraga,'' the smooth Venus clam.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q13903776 chemnitzii Gastropods described in 1840