| Faunus ater | |
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| A shell of Faunus ater | |
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| Genus: | Faunus de Montfort, 1810 |
| Species: | F. ater |
| Binomial name | |
| Faunus ater (Linnaeus, 1758) | |
Faunus ater is a species of brackish water snail with an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Pachychilidae. [1]
Faunus ater is the only species within the genus Faunus. [1]
The distribution of Faunus ater includes:
The periostracum is thick, and the color of the periostracum is dark brown or black. [1] The shell has about 20 whorls. [1] The apical whorls may be eroded in older snails. [1] The aperture is ovate and white. [1] The shell is unique among Cerithioidea, because it has two deep sinuses: an anal sinus which is close to the suture and an anterior sinus more forward in the aperture. [1] The height of the aperture is about one-fifth of the height of the shell. [1]
The height of the shell is usually 50–60 mm, but can be up to 90 mm. [1]
The operculum is oval, corneous and dark brown in color. [1]
The snail has a broad snout. [1] The radula is large and is located in a correspondingly large buccal mass. [1]
This snail lives in slightly brackish water. [1] It has also been reported from freshwater. [1] It is the only pachychilid species that lives in brackish water; the other species in the family are freshwater snails.
The population density can reach up to 6700 snails per m2. [1]
This snail probably feeds by grazing. [1]
It is oviparous. [1] It probably has free-swimming larvae. [1]
This snail is used as a food source for humans in the Philippines and in Thailand. [1]
The gastropod shell is part of the body of a gastropod or snail, a kind of mollusc. The shell is an exoskeleton, which protects from predators, mechanical damage, and dehydration, but also serves for muscle attachment and calcium storage. Some gastropods appear shell-less (slugs) but may have a remnant within the mantle, or the shell is reduced such that the body cannot be retracted within (semi-slug). Some snails also possess an operculum that seals the opening of the shell, known as the aperture, which provides further protection. The study of mollusc shells is known as conchology. The biological study of gastropods, and other molluscs in general, is malacology. Shell morphology terms vary by species group. An excellent source for terminology of the gastropod shell is "How to Know the Eastern Land Snails" by John B. Burch now freely available at the Hathi Trust Digital Library.
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