Fieldtrip to Rancho Marino

Image from Rancho Marino Reserve, Cambria, CA, February 24-26, 2006

The "circled rock snail" Ocenebra circumtexta has successfully drilled through a limpet, Lottia fenestrata. On the Monterey Peninsula, O. circumtexta is common and has been observed to feed on a variety prey including barnacles (especially Tetraclita squamosa and Chthamalus spp.), small limpets, tube worms, and mussels (Dusek, 1999). Compared with the co-occurring whelks, Nucella emarginata (or N. ostrina?) and Acanthanucella punctulata, O. circumtexta normally appears to feed less in the sun and favors an undercut habitat (Eldon, 2004). This snail appears to be in the sun because I reflected light on it with a mirror.

Citations
Dusek, Eva. 1999. Ocenebra circumtexta in the intertidal: prey selection and stratification of a predatory snail. Hopkins Marine Station Student Paper (abstract). Available on-line at: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/miller/student_papers/1999_2.html
Eldon, Jon. 2004. Behavioral patterns of three intertidal whelks, Nucella emarginata, Acanthanucella punctulata, and Ocenebra circumtexta, in response to tidal variation. Hopkins Marine Station Student Paper (abstract). Available on-line at: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/miller/student_papers/2004_3.html

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