Hemera Technologies/AbleStock.com/Getty Images. Photo by Casey Cruikshank. They have a round shape and are a blue-white color. Moon snails live on sandy substrates, at a great variety of depths depending on the species (from the intertidal zone to thousands of meters in depth). She then secretes a separate layer of mucous to form another layer of hardened sand, which separates her from the eggs, so she can leave them protected while scavenging for food. As they hatch, the sand collar disintegrates around them. A female moon snail can produce thousands of eggs at one time and lays them at night. Snails live all over the world in soil (or dirt), sand, trees, under rocks or leaves, and in the rivers, lakes, and oceans. PART OF WILD SKY MEDIA | FAMILY & PARENTING, Inside Bainbridge: Lessons from the Shore; Piddock Clams and Moon Snails, Daily Kos: Marine Life Series; Moon Snails and Sand Collars, Wild Fact Sheets: Sand Collars of Moon Snails. If you're wondering how do snails mate and whether they do it slowly, you'll be interested to know that like most of the stuff that snails do, mating and reproduction takes a pretty lengthy amount of time. The center of the shell is often dark blue or purple. When a moon snail finds its prey, the moon snail attaches to the clam, usually at the umbo. They are often seen ploughing along in the sand searching for prey. The snail’s soft body is large and will conceal the entire shell when it is outstretched. A moon snail preys upon other snails and bivalves. The hole is bored by an Atlantic Moon Snail (or Shark Eye, Polinices duplicatus, Family Naticidae), that cruises just beneath the sand searching for clams. I’m always looking, but I must frequent the wrong mudflats. Pond snails (Lymnaeidae) are a family of gastropods quite common in European rivers, lakes and ponds. Empower Her. They have a round shape and are a blue-white color. The eggs hatch out before the collar starts to fall apart, so while still rubbery, there can be thousands of tiny larval moon snails (these swimming larvae are called veliger larvae) swimming around within the mucus matrix of the collar. I like Moon Snails! Most of the animal's time during the daylight hours is spent buried in the bay bottom. Pick up a clam or mussel shell, even a moon snail shell, if there is a round beveled hole in the shell chances are, it was killed and eaten by a moon snail. A friend recently brought me one - it had washed up above the tide line, dried out and was starting to crumble. Once their shell begins to form, the young moon snail travels to the ocean floor in search of food. Snails live in many different habitats. Yes, these gastropods do like to take their time! Digital access or digital and print delivery. She uses the cilia on her foot to distribute the eggs between herself and the sand collar she’s made. Lifespans of the snails vary with the species; they can live from one (apple snails) to seven (Achatinidae snails) years in the wild. Choose the plan that’s right for you. She sinks to the ocean floor and hovers above the sand. Moon Snail ‘live’ at Altona Beach. Because this is taking place between her foot and her shell, this structure takes on the shape of her shell. Most brown-lipped snails (Cepaea nemoralis), pictured above, have a dark brown band around … Moon snails are predatory sea mollusks that are as abundant in tropical waters as they are in arctic waters. Other predators of moon snails include sea stars. We're looking at the Moon Snails, over 250 species in the Naticidae family. Moon snails emerge from deeper waters to the shallow intertidal habitats in the summer to breed on sandy shorelines. The egg case is shaped like an old-fashioned shirt collar - hence the name. Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted. Read more of her Nature News columns online. Lewis' Moon Snail, named for Meriwether Lewis, is one of the largest gastropods in the northwest. Eggs are laid in a round collar cemented together with sand and mucus. They also lay their eggs on shore, creating towers made of layers of sand stuck together with mucus. The Northern moon snail can grow up to 12.7 centimeters, and live up to fourteen years. Moon snails also leave evidence of egg laying on the beach. But the destruction of the snail’s habitat, along with pollution, are pushing some species to extinction. Susan Pike, a researcher and an environmental sciences and biology teacher at St. Thomas Aquinas High School, welcomes your ideas for future column topics. November 11, 2009 by baykeeper. Moon snails, like other predatory snails, use their tongue-like radula (rasping mouthpart) to drill holes in the shells of their prey. DIET These predatory snails consume other mollusks and are sometimes cannibalistic. Moon snails are predatory sea mollusks that are as abundant in tropical waters as they are in arctic waters. Not every animal in the world is on there, but it does say that mussels and clams (which, like snails, are part of a group of animals called molluscs) do not fart. Moon snails are beautiful, round, moon-shaped snails (hence the name) that live just offshore of sandy beaches and on tidal sand and mudflats. They live just below the surface of the sand, 10 cm or deeper. M-840 MOON SNAIL, Polinices duplicatus It has a smooth rounded shell and a greatly expanded foot. However, in the winter, they move to deep waters. This is why the shell is so glossy. Atlantic Moon Snail has Carnivorous diet (clams), Cannibalistic (eats other moon snails). It wraps its large foot around the prey item and then drills a hole through the shell of its victim. Moon snails have a large shell and an even larger foot with which they burrow in sand or travel across it. See what you can find - a moon snail sand collar or perhaps some other just-as-startling mystery that the ocean has coughed up onto the shore. She's covered the New York Comic Con for NonProductive since 2009 and writes about everything from responsible pet ownership to comic books to the manner in which smart phones are changing the way people shop. She may be reached at spike3116@gmail.com. There are many species of snails in our gardens. Parasites and predators are the leading causes of death. The habitat typical for these gastropod mollusks is in the marine environs. Moon Snail (Euspira lewisii) KINGDOM Animalia PHYLUM Mollusca CLASS Gastropoda ORDER Neotaenioglossa FAMILY Naticidae One of the best-known invertebrates in the sandy intertidal zone is the Moon Snail, both because it is a large (up to 13 cm in diameter) species and because its egg masses are especially notable. Most species prefer the tropics, though. The story of how the female moon snail does this is spectacular, a nice example of the myriad of solutions nature has come up with to help with the task of reproduction.