At 11:59 AM 9/2/99 -0400, you wrote:

>Some people have used the radula.  It would be also be good in this case.
>The differences are generally great between herbivores (neritids) and
>carnivores (naticids).


The genus Bathynerita and species B. neritoidea were described by Arthur H.
Clarke in 1989 ("New mollusks from undersea oil seep sites off Louisiana",
Malacology Data Net 2, pp. 122-134). Clarke included the species in the
family Neritidae and provided pictures of shell, operculum, and radula. A
look at these structures indicates that the species belongs in the
superfamily Neritoidea, most likely part of the family Neritidae. The large
number of specimens made available in the last few years to zoological
research (check it by simply browsing the web under the name Bathynerita)
hints at possible abundance of this species in the vicinity of deep-sea
(500-1000 m) hydrocarbon seeps. Given the impressive number of papers and
meeting abstracts on diverse aspects of the life of B. neritoidea, I
suspect that the biology of this deep-sea species is better known than
those of many intertidal, easy-to-reach, tropical nerites.

Best,

Jose
__________________________________________________________________________
Jose H. Leal, Ph.D.
Director, The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum
Editor-in-chief, THE NAUTILUS
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