Tapestry
turban snail
Turbo petholatus
Family
Turbinidae
updated
Sep 2020
Where
seen? Rarely seen, this pretty snails is found in living reefs on our Southern shores. It is more active at night.
Features: About 6cm. Shell
thick smooth glossy, without any cords. Colours brown, with a spiralling pattern of fine banded lines. Operculum shelly, hemi-spherical
and smooth, brown and greenish. Body black with a bright orange foot,
a pair of slender tentacles.
Sometimes confused with the Top
shell snail (Family Trochidae) has a more pyramidal shell and
a thin operculum made of a horn-like material. While the turban shell
snail has a shell with more distinct whorls and a thick, chalky operculum.
Here's more on how to tell apart turban
and top shell snails. |
Pulau Hantu, Aug 15 |
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| Human uses: It is listed as Endangered on the Red List of threatened animals of Singapore. Although never abundant, it could be found up until the early 1970s. |
| Tapestry
turban snails on Singapore shores |
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Acknowlegement
With grateful thanks to Tan Siong Kiat of the Raffles Museum of
Biodiversity Research for identifying this snail.
References
- Tan Siong
Kiat and Henrietta P. M. Woo, 2010 Preliminary
Checklist of The Molluscs of Singapore (pdf), Raffles
Museum of Biodiversity Research, National University of Singapore.
- Davison,
G.W. H. and P. K. L. Ng and Ho Hua Chew, 2008. The Singapore
Red Data Book: Threatened plants and animals of Singapore.
Nature Society (Singapore). 285 pp.
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