Melo (gastropod)

Melo is a genus of extremely large sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Volutidae, the volutes. Because of their huge ovate shells, these snails are often known as "bailers" (the shells were sometimes used for bailing out canoes) or "melons" (because the shell resembles that fruit).

Melo
A shell of the Indian volute, Melo melo surrounded by a group of pearls from that species
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Caenogastropoda
Order: Neogastropoda
Family: Volutidae
Tribe: Melonini
Genus: Melo
Broderip in Sowerby I, 1826[1]

Species in this genus sometimes produce large pearls. The image in the taxobox shows a group of these pearls with a shell of the species Melo melo.

Description

The large shell is subovate and ventricose. The spire is short. The apex is obtuse, papillary, persistent. The whorls are smooth. The body whorl is posteriorly coronated. The aperture is oblong and wide. The columella shows several oblique plaits, the anterior the largest. The outer lip is simple, acute and obliquely truncate in front. [2]

Species

The following species are recognised in the genus Melo:[3]

A live individual of what is probably Melo umbilicatus
A shell of Melo aethiopica
A shell of Melo melo
A juvenile shell of what is probably Melo amphora

Ecology

Parasites of Melo sp. include trematode Lophotaspis macdonaldi.[4]

References
  1. Broderip W. (1826). In: Sowerby, Gen. Shells, (28).
  2. Adams, H. & Adams, A. (1853-1858). The genera of Recent Mollusca; arranged according to their organization. London, van Voorst. Vol. 1: xl + 484 pp.; vol. 2: 661 pp.; vol. 3: 138 pls
  3. "WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species - Melo Broderip, 1826". www.marinespecies.org. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  4. Alevs, Philippe V.; Vieira, Fabiano M.; Santos, Cláudia P.; Scholz, Tomáš; Luque, José L. (2015-02-12). "A Checklist of the Aspidogastrea (Platyhelminthes: Trematoda) of the World". Zootaxa. 3918 (3): 339–96. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3918.3.2. ISSN 1175-5334. PMID 25781098.
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