Molluscan ResearchISSN 1323-5818
 An international journal of the Malacological Society of Australasia and 
the Society for the Study of Molluscan Diversity published by Magnolia Press

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Molluscan Research 31(2): 90-94; published 28 Jul. 2011
Copyright © The Malacological Society of Australasia & the Society for the Study of Molluscan Diversity

Behaviour of Nassarius bicallosus (Caenogastropoda) on a northwestern Western Australian surf beach with a review of feeding in the Nassariidae

BRIAN MORTON

Department of Zoology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, U.K.

Email: prof_bmorton@hotmail.co.uk

Abstract

The intertidal nassariid Nassarius bicallosus lives on surf-exposed beaches across northern Australia including 80-Mile Beach near Broome in northwestern Western Australia. As the tide recedes, N. bicallosus emerges from the sand and feeds on a film of surface inorganic and organic particles, as confirmed by gut content analysis, but it may also be an opportunistic scavenger. Based on a review of feeding in nassariids, their widely reported habit of scavenging is probably and largely opportunistic in most taxa, although it appears to be obligatory in species of Bullia that are similarly occupants of surf beaches in South Africa.

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