BULLETIN OF MARINE SCIENCE. 00(0):000–000. 0000
doi:10.5343/
27
Bulletn of Marine Science
© 2011 Rosenstel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
of the University of Miami
Bulletin of Marine Science
© 2019 Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science of
the University of Miami Portraits of Marine Science
Bull Mar Sci. 95(1):27–28. 2019
https://doi.org/10.5343/bms.2018.0058
Swift strike by the gastropod Scaphella junonia
on its gastropod prey Americoliva sayana
José H Leal
*
, Rebecca A Mensch
Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum, 3075 Sanibel-Captiva Rd, Sanibel, Florida 33957.
* Corresponding author email: <jleal@shellmuseum.org>.
B
We record for the frst time a strike by the volutid Scaphella junonia (Lamarck, 1804)
(“junonia”) on its preferred prey, the lettered olive, Americoliva sayana (Ravenel, 1834), and
the ensuing reaction of the latter to the attack. Tree junonias were collected by one of us (RA
Mensch) during the Gulf of Mexico expedition, February 23–26, 2018, of R/V Weatherbird
II, (GS Herbert, Chief Scientist). Te junonias were kept alive in a 208-L tank with a layer of
sand of similar granulometry to the substrate at the collecting site, and fed lettered olives.
Te male specimen featured here measures 82 mm and was collected on February 26, 2018,
at Station XXI N, 26°29.414´N–26°28.684´N, 83°29.553´W–83°29.049´W, 55.5–54.6 m depth.
Te specimens will be deposited at the GS Herbert West Florida Shelf Collection, School of
Geosciences, University of South Florida.
Mollusk-eating volutids typically envelop their prey within the posterior part of the lon-
gitudinally folded foot, positioning the head in a ventral and posterior direction, into the
“chamber” thus formed to reach the prey (Ponder 1970, Bayer 1971, Vermeij 1978, Morton
1986, Bigatti et al. 2009, 2010). Morton (1986), after observing Melo melo (Lightfoot, 1786)
feeding on gastropods, remarked that “possibly a venom is produced from a pair of accessory