''Busycon'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of very large edible

sea snail Sea snail is a common name for slow-moving marine gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguished from snails primarily by the a ...

s in the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classifica ...

Busyconinae The Busyconinae are taxonomic subfamily of large sea snails, often known as whelks. The name "whelk" also refers to Buccinidae. Busyconinae consists of Recent and fossil species.Bouchet, P. (2015). Busyconinae Wade, 1917 (1867). In: MolluscaBase ...

. These snails are commonly known in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

as ''

whelk Whelk (also known as scungilli) is a common name applied to various kinds of sea snail. Although a number of whelks are relatively large and are in the family Buccinidae (the true whelks), the word ''whelk'' is also applied to some other marin ...

s'' or ''Busycon whelks''. Less commonly they are loosely, and somewhat misleadingly, called "

conch Conch () is a common name of a number of different medium-to-large-sized sea snails. Conch shells typically have a high spire and a noticeable siphonal canal (in other words, the shell comes to a noticeable point at both ends). In North Am ...

s".Bouchet, P. (2015). Busycon Röding, 1798. In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=160183 on 2015-12-03 ''Busycon'' comes from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

''bousykon'' meaning ''large fig'', from ''bous'' meaning '' cow'' and ''sykon'' meaning ''

fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

''.

Shell description

Shells of species in this genus can grow to a length of 40 cm. They all have a long

siphonal canal The siphonal canal is an anatomical feature of the shells of certain groups of sea snails within the clade Neogastropoda. Some sea marine gastropods have a soft tubular anterior extension of the mantle called a siphon through which water is d ...

. The shells are generally a solid

cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...

, light grey or

tan Tan or TAN may refer to: Businesses and organisations * Black and Tans, a nickname for British special constables during the Irish War of Independence. By extension "Tans" can now also colloquially refer to English or British people in general, es ...

in color, however the shell of the

lightning whelk ''Sinistrofulgur perversum'', the lightning whelk, is an edible species of very large predatory sea snail or whelk, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Busyconidae, the busycon whelks. This species has a left-handed or sinistral shell. It ...

is marked with brown and white streaks. The shell of individuals can sometimes vary quite widely in coloration and

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

Behavior

Busycon whelks are

scavengers Scavengers are animals that consume dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a herbivorous feeding b ...

and

carnivores A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other so ...

, equipped with a

proboscis A proboscis () is an elongated appendage from the head of an animal, either a vertebrate or an invertebrate. In invertebrates, the term usually refers to tubular mouthparts used for feeding and sucking. In vertebrates, a proboscis is an elong ...

tipped with a file-like

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 ...

used to bore holes through the shells of

barnacle A barnacle is a type of arthropod constituting the subclass Cirripedia in the subphylum Crustacea, and is hence related to crabs and lobsters. Barnacles are exclusively marine, and tend to live in shallow and tidal waters, typically in erosiv ...

clam Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds. Clams have two shel ...

crabs Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...

, and

lobster Lobsters are a family (Nephropidae, synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs have claws, including the first pair, ...

s. They have a large, muscular foot with which they hold their victims. Small

shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachi ...

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century ...

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all th ...

s, and other gastropods are known to feed upon them. The

knobbed whelk The knobbed whelk (''Busycon carica'') is a species of very large predatory sea snail, or in the US, a whelk, a marine (ocean), marine gastropod mollusc, mollusk in the family (biology), family Busyconidae, the busycon whelks. The knobbed whel ...

, ''

Busycon carica The knobbed whelk (''Busycon carica'') is a species of very large predatory sea snail, or in the US, a whelk, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Busyconidae, the busycon whelks. The knobbed whelk is the second largest species of busycon ...

'', is the second-largest species, growing up to 30 cm long. They have

tubercle In anatomy, a tubercle (literally 'small tuber', Latin for 'lump') is any round nodule, small eminence, or warty outgrowth found on external or internal organs of a plant or an animal. In plants A tubercle is generally a wart-like projection ...

s (spines) along the shoulder. They open clams with their muscular foot and insert their long proboscis to digest the flesh. The knobbed whelk is a common predator of the

foreshore 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 specie ...

mudflats Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal fl ...

as far offshore as 50 m.

Eggs

Strings of Busycon whelk

egg capsule An egg case or egg capsule, often colloquially called a mermaid's purse, is the casing that surrounds the eggs of oviparous sharks, skates and chimaeras. Egg cases typically contain one embryo, except for big skate and mottled skate egg case ...

s commonly wash ashore and desiccate, becoming brittle. These objects are sometimes called ''mermaid's necklaces'' because they resemble a large necklace strung with medallion-shaped egg pouches. Each pouch of the string contains numerous

protoconch A protoconch (meaning first or earliest or original shell) is an embryonic or larval shell which occurs in some classes of molluscs, e.g., the initial chamber of an ammonite or the larval shell of a gastropod. In older texts it is also called " ...

s (baby whelks), similar in appearance to adults but with fewer whorls and less sculpture.

Human use

When used for cooking in the United States, busycon whelks are sometimes called ''scungilli'', an

Italian-American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, ...

adaptation of the

Neapolitan Neapolitan means of or pertaining to Naples, a city in Italy; or to: Geography and history * Province of Naples, a province in the Campania region of southern Italy that includes the city * Duchy of Naples, in existence during the Early and Hig ...

''sconciglio'' which means the meat of a (usually edible) sea snail.

Species

The genus ''Busycon'' contains the following species:list of Busycon species at malacolog.org
/ref> * ''

'' (Gmelin, 1791) -

Knobbed whelk The knobbed whelk (''Busycon carica'') is a species of very large predatory sea snail, or in the US, a whelk, a marine (ocean), marine gastropod mollusc, mollusk in the family (biology), family Busyconidae, the busycon whelks. The knobbed whel ...

* ''

Busycon contrarium ''Sinistrofulgur contrarium'' is a fossil snail species of the busycon whelks in the family Busyconidae. There has been some confusion about the correct taxonomy of this species, which has been confused with the extant species ''Sinistrofulgur si ...

'' (Conrad, 1840) † ;Species brought into synonymy: * ''Busycon (Sinistrofulgur) aspinosum'' Hollister, 1958: synonym of ''

Sinistrofulgur sinistrum ''Sinistrofulgur sinistrum'' is an edible species of large predatory sea snail in the family Busyconidae, the busycon whelks. This species is often confused with ''Sinistrofulgur perversum'', and with '' Busycon contrarium'', which is now consid ...

'' (Hollister, 1958) * ''Busycon (Sinistrofulgur) perversum'' (

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

1758 Events January–March * January 1 – Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) publishes in Stockholm the first volume (''Animalia'') of the 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'', the starting point of modern zoologi ...

): synonym of ''

Sinistrofulgur perversum ''Sinistrofulgur perversum'', the lightning whelk, is an edible species of very large predatory sea snail or whelk, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Busyconidae, the busycon whelks. This species has a left-handed or sinistral shell. It ...

'' (

) * ''Busycon (Sinistrofulgur) sinistrum'' Hollister, 1958: synonym of ''

'' (Hollister, 1958) * ''Busycon amoenum'' Conrad, 1875: synonym of '' Brachysycon amoenum'' (Conrad, 1875) † * ''Busycon blakei'' Conrad, 1855 †: synonym of '' Pseudoperissolax blakei'' (Conrad, 1855) † * ''Busycon candelabrum''

Lamarck Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck (1 August 1744 – 18 December 1829), often known simply as Lamarck (; ), was a French naturalist, biologist, academic, and soldier. He was an early proponent of the idea that biolo ...

, 1816 - Splendid whelk: synonym of '' Lindafulgur candelabrum'' (Lamarck, 1816) * ''Busycon coarctatum'' (Sowerby I, 1825): synonym of '' Busycoarctum coarctatum'' (G.B. Sowerby I, 1825) * ''Busycon laeostomum'' Kent, 1982 - Snow whelk: synonym of '' Sinistrofulgur laeostomum'' (Kent, 1982) * ''Busycon lindajoyceae'' Petuch, 1991 †: synonym of '' Lindafulgur lindajoyceae'' (Petuch, 1991) † * '' Busycon lyonsi'' Petuch, 1987: synonym of '' Lindafulgur lyonsi'' (Petuch, 1987) * ''Busycon muricatum'' Röding, 1798: synonym of ''

'' (Gmelin, 1791) * ''Busycon perversum'' -

Lightning whelk ''Sinistrofulgur perversum'', the lightning whelk, is an edible species of very large predatory sea snail or whelk, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Busyconidae, the busycon whelks. This species has a left-handed or sinistral shell. It ...

: synonym of ''

'' (

) * ''Busycon plagosum'' Conrad, 1862: synonym of ''

Fulguropsis plagosa ''Fulguropsis'' is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs 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 purp ...

'' (Conrad, 1863) * ''Busycon pulleyi'' - Prickly whelk: synonym of '' Sinistrofulgur pulleyi'' (Hollister, 1958) * ''Busycon sinistrum'' Hollister, 1958: synonym of ''

'' (Hollister, 1958) The following species have been moved from ''Busycon'' to the genus ''Busycotypus'' * '' Busycotypus canaliculatus'' (

) Channeled whelk. ''Busycotypus canaliculatus'', is slightly smaller than the knobbed whelk, and has a smooth shell with a deep square channel which is continuous on all the whorls, just below the

suture Suture, literally meaning "seam", may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Suture'' (album), a 2000 album by American Industrial rock band Chemlab * ''Suture'' (film), a 1993 film directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel * Suture (ban ...

of the shell.

References

Röding P. F. (1798). Museum Boltenianum sive Catalogus cimeliorum e tribus regnis naturae quae olim collegerat Joa. Fried. Bolten M. D. p. d. Pars secunda continens Conchylia sive Testacea univalvia, bivalvia et multivalvia
{{Taxonbar, from=Q291491 Gastropod genera Busyconinae Taxa named by Peter Friedrich Röding