Biology and conservation of the giant marine snail Adelomelon beckii in Argentina

Abstract

The giant volutid snail Adelomelon beckii (Broderip, 1836)(Fig. 1) is endemic to the western south Atlantic shelf and is distributed from Espiritu Santo (Brasil) to Tierra del Fuego (Argentina) (Weaver & du Pont, 1970). This species inhabits sandy bottoms in water depths of 40-70 m (Weaver & du Pont 1970). It often exceeds 40 cm and sometimes reaches up to 50 cm in shell length (Rios, 1994). This species preys on another carnivorous snail, Zidona dufresnei (see Arrighetti, 2009), and on other gastropods and bivalves (Weaver & du Pont, 1970), positioning it among the top benthic predators in the food web.