Hastula cinera salleana can be found anywhere on the open beach
locally between the mid tide point to the low tide point but are most
frequently
seen in the surf. When stranded on the beach (between tides) they will leave
a straight trail in the sand as they plow through much the same as an
Olive - only much narrower and shorter.  The species can be seen paired -
copulating in the surf with one of the pair providing stability by being
partially buried in the sand.  American Conchlogist Asst. Editor Char
Lloyd made more detailed observations last year in regards to this
behavior.

Also see: http://home.sprynet.com/~wfrank/surfsup.htm

Some specimens I collected recently and brought home in a ice chest of
salt water, were not a bit put off by their removal from their native
habitat
and proceeded to do what they were on the beach for in the first place -
which I duly photographed. Considering the vast numbers on local beaches,
the Terebra must be doing something right in regards to propagating
the species. I am quite sure that having so many in one place at one time
doesn't hurt their chances of successfully finding a mate.

Bill F.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lynn Scheu" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2000 9:54 AM
Subject: Terebra cinerea and salleana (was Strombus pugilis v. alatus)


> Bill and all,

> Forgive the topic shift. These animals have always fascinated me because
> of their lifestyle...digging in and being washed out by the next wave.
> So you sent me reading:
>
> I had always heard that they are there to feed on coquinas (Donax
> variabilis). Indeed, I have once found one (I thought) feasting on same.
> Who knows what it was really doing since I read in Bratcher and
> Cernohorsky's 1987 Living Terebras of the World that they actually feed
> on small polychaete worms (Siphonidae and Opheliidae). In any case I am
> glad to know about this breeding time/behavior...somehow it never
> occurred to me that they'd come ashore, like marine mammals, to breed.
> Do you mean they are (alive) all over the beach in the surf or all over
> the beach on dry sand? (The strombus alatus we threw back on Carl
> Johnson beach were, many of them, up in the dry sand, at high tideline
> or above, where they'd crawled.)
>
> RE feeding:
> Bratcher says that this group of terebrids (genus Hastula) actually
> spend their lives "on surf-washed beaches throughout the tropics,
> occupying the same microhabitat as Donax [thus the misconception about
> their prey], and others are found just beyond the breakers."  They
> detect their prey by chemo-reception.  When the propodium of the foot
> comes in contact with the prey, the animal lunges, injecting its
> poisonous radular tooth. [I bet a lot of people thought only cones had
> poisonous teeth! A couple of the subfamilies of the Turridae do too!]
> The terebra then burrows down in the sand, taking its captive home to
> dinner. Bratcher says, "Prey capture is usually completed between the
> passage of two successive waves."
>
> Southern Synthesis (Superfamily Conoidea by A. J. Kohn) adds
> interestingly to this information:
> "Members of the genus Hastula differ from other terebrids in having a
> large, flexible, fleshy foot with a broad propodium. They crawl rapidly
> on sand (20 to 30 steps/min) and use another locomotor method absent in
> other terebrids: the foot is extended broadly and functions as a sail
> that catches waves in the surf zone, carrying the animal rapidly up and
> down the beach." A figure showing six steps in their locomotion is
> included. (The figure is drawn after B.A. Miller's 1979 article in
> Pacific Science, The Biology of Hastula inconstans...." 33: 289-306.) I
> can scan this drawing  and send it to anyone interested, provided they
> ask off-list.
>
> RE breeding:
> Not to be voyeuristic or anything, but how do they manage? There is not
> much time between waves to locate an opposite-sexed mate. And then
> there's the always-approaching next wave to contend with! Bratcher only
> gives us: "Some species mate beneath the sand, others on the surface."
> Perhaps the large numbers help? Kohn in Southern Synthesis offers more
> (citing Miller's study)info, at least on Hastula inconstans which has a
> similar lifestyle to H. cinerea and H. salleana:
>
> "...mating occurs on the sand surface while the pair rolls back and
> forth in the surge. (Didn't they already do this in "From Here To
> Eternity"?) Females attach egg capsules, about 1 mm across, to coarse
> grains of sand about the same size, just seaward of the surf zone. Each
> capsule contains about 40 eggs and development is probably direct."
>
> Thanks for stimulating a biology lesson for me, Bill!
>
> Lynn Scheu
> Louisville KY