On the east coast, H. concavum bores a hole in its victim's shell at exactly the same spot. Barry: next time I find a live concavum I will put your idea to test. I suppose by mucus you mean saliva, otherwise, Haplotrema would dissolve its own shell. Aydin snailstales.blogspot.com On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 15:45:51 -0800, Barry Roth <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >In the U.S. Pacific Northwest, the predatory snail Haplotrema vancouverense attacks snails of the genus Vespericola by rasping through the body whorl a short distance behind the aperture. I believe it does so, rather than going through the nearby aperture itself, in order to avoid the vespericola's mantle collar -- which may have some nasty glands or other defense. The resulting hole is large enough to admit the foreparts of the haplotrema. > > The whole process is accompanied by profuse secretion of foamy mucus by the haplotrema, and the shell of the prey winds up looking like a snail shell that has been lying around in humus for some time. This leads me to believe that the mucus may be acid, although I've never taken the simple step of testing it with litmus paper. > > Barry Roth > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [log in to unmask] - a forum for informal discussions on molluscs To leave this list, click on the following web link: http://listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=conch-l&A=1 Type your email address and name in the appropriate box and click leave the list. ----------------------------------------------------------------------