The website Frank Robb so kindly suggested to us for viewing color forms of
Nucella lapillus, <http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/marinebio/rockyshore.html>,
is fascinating! It is a long and slow-to-load page of pictures of lots of
Rocky Shore fauna, a part of Marine Biology Web at State University of New
York at Stony Brook.. Thanks, Frank.
 
I got a little bored waiting for so many photos to load, and began to read
all the text. Lots of rocky shore biology and ecology there. The most
interesting thing I read there, almost halfway down the page, was that a
clam (in this case a mussel) is capable of active defensive behavior beyond
just escape or slamming shut the door. It has a weapon.  I read this below,
illustrated with a good photo:
 
>
>                          Mussel Defense Against Dog-Whelk Predator
>
>Photo by Peter Petraitis
>
>Yellow arrows point to byssal threads attached to the dog whelk (l. right)
>The dog whelk Nucella lapillus also feeds on the mussel Mytilus edulis on
rocky shores of NewEngland. When it mounts a mussel it commences to drill a
hole in the >shell. Peter Petraitis has found that the mussels can fight
back, however, and >respond by attaching byssal threads to the snail and
ensnare it, which traps them >and exposes them to crab predation.
 
And sure enough, there is mussel clump with byssus threads extending to the
outer lip of the Nucella, a bit like the Lilliputians with Gulliver.  Made
me sort of glad I 'm not fond of mussels for dinner, myself.
 
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lynn Scheu, Editor
American Conchologist and The Conch-Net
Conchologists of America
1222 Holsworth Lane, Louisville, KY 40222-6616
502/423-0469
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Those who don't do anything never make mistakes.
                          --Theodore de Banville