previous | home page | this month| e-
Richard Bell’s Wild West Yorkshire nature diary, Thursday, 8th January 2009
previous | home page | this month| e-
THE NOTCH at the front of the shell is for a siphon tube. The whelk uses the tube
for searching out carrion -
Common Whelk, Buccinum undatum
Keelworms, Pomatoceros lamarcki, have constructed their keeled tubes inside the discarded whelk shell. They’re members of the tubeworm family Serpulidae and they feed by spreading a crown of brightly coloured tentacles from the mouth of the tube.