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Deepseawaters Home Deepsea
AnimalsChannelled Volute
Channelled Volute
Common Name: Channelled Volute
Scientific Name: Amoria Canaliculata
Description
 The
Channelled Volute is a small shell, 40 - 70 mm in length.
The shell is very glossy, elongated and brightly coloured.
It is spotted with bold blocks of orange and is delicately
streaked with fine reddish axial lines. The smooth shell is
well adapted for burrowing. The snail (mollusc) that lives
in the Channelled Volute is specific to this shell and has
a large fleshy mantle (fold in the body wall that lines the
shell) and a muscular foot. The patterns on the long proboscis
and broad mantle help disguise the mollusc's form as it slowly
glides across the sandy bottom. The Channelled Volute is reported
to have one of the most outstanding colour patterns in the
volute family.
Molluscs
use this mantle to produce a shell by absorbing calcium carbonate
and other ingredients from their habitat and food and secreting
it in an orderly fashion to form the shell house. The Volute
keeps adding to this shell and keeps it under repair for its
entire life.
Diet
Volutes
are carnivorous, feeding on small invertebrate animals and
other molluscs such as bivalves, gastropods and hermit crabs.
Habitat
They
can be found on coral and sand in lagoons and sandy areas
to depths of 150 metres.
Special
Features or Habits
Females
lay their eggs in tough capsules usually in compact egg masses.
One egg in each capsule develops and consumes the other eggs
in that capsule as it grows and develops.
Volutes
spend much of their time concealed under the sand and emerging
as the tide begins to rise to forage for food.
Location
or Region Food
They
are found from Bowen south to Moreton Bay, however, more commonly
encountered in the central Queensland coastal region.
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