Show Navigation

Search Results

Refine Search
Match all words
Match any word
Prints
Personal Use
Royalty-Free
Rights-Managed
(leave unchecked to
search all images)
{ 1 images found }

Loading ()...

  • This is a violet snail (Janthina janthina), also known as a bubble raft snail. These pelagic snails are found worldwide in temperate and tropical waters. They are considered pleuston, macroscopic organisms that live at the interface of air and water. To float at the ocean surface, these snails use thin secretions of chitin to envelope bubbles of air, thus creating a buoyancy support. They bob upside-down below the ocean surface and wait for prey such as Portuguese man-of-wars (Physalia sp.) and by-the-wind sailors (Velella velella). When they sense such prey, bubble raft snails extend their long cylindrical snouts and use a rasping mechanism to grab prey, as pictured here. These snails are protandrous sequential hermaphrodites, meaning they all commence life as males, then become female. This snail, with a shell of about three centimeters, was found washed ashore with a mass stranding of thousands of colonial siphonophores.
    janthina-janthina-violet-bubble-raft...tif
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
x

Tony Wu Underwater Photography

  • Search Image Archive
    • All Galleries
    • Search
    • Cart
    • Lightbox
    • Client Area
  • View Portfolio
  • Read About Me
  • Send Me a Note
  • Portfolio