Voluta musica, common name the music volute, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Volutidae, the volutes.
Synonyms
Voluta caquetio Berschauer & Ros, 2025 Voluta carneolata Lamarck, 1811 Voluta chorea Röding, 1798 Voluta confusa Röding, 1798 Voluta fulva Lamarck, 1811 Voluta incarnata Röding, 1798 Voluta laevigata Röding, 1798 Voluta lineata Röding, 1798 Voluta maculata Röding, 1798 Voluta musica guineensis Dillwyn, 1817 Voluta musica typica Dall, 1907 Voluta muta Röding, 1798 Voluta nodulosa Lamarck, 1822 Voluta plicata Dillwyn, 1817 Voluta reticulata Röding, 1798 Voluta rosea Röding, 1798 Voluta rugifera Dall, 1907 Voluta sulcata Lamarck, 1811 Voluta thiarella Lamarck, 1811 Voluta tobagoensis Verrill, 1953 Voluta tobagoensis var. damula Dall, 1907 Voluta tobagoensis var. guinaica Lamarck, 1811 Voluta turbata Röding, 1798 Voluta violacea Lamarck, 1811
Subspecies Voluta musica guineensis Dillwyn, 1817 Voluta musica typica Dall, 1907
Distribution The species occurs on the mainland Caribbean coast in Colombia and Venezuela, and in the West Indies from the following islands or countries: Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Shell description
The maximum reported size of the shell is 115 mm.
These medium-sized, very solid, axially ribbed shells are characterized by delicate blackish to reddish brown markings on a creamy background color, with a characteristic series of lines resembling a musical manuscript (hence the common name "music volute").M. Salomé Rangel, Alejandro Tagliafico, Jeremy Mendoza, Luis Freites, José Silva, Abel Vásquez, Natividad García (2011)Population, reproductive and ecological aspects of the music volute Voluta musica (Caenogastropoda: Volutidae) in northeastern Venezuela Pan-American Journal of Aquatic Sciences 6 (2), S. 121-137.
Specimens from the Eastern Caribbean island of Barbados are pink in color (var. "carneolata"). Deeper-water Barbados examples trapped alive at around 100 m. depth are orange in color.
Ecology Voluta musica is usually found alive in muddy and sandy substrate at depths of 5 m to 28 m., although at Barbados this species has been found with their dorsums dry as they crawl across exposed South Coast reefs at very low tide and have been trapped alive at depths of about 100 m. along the island's West Coast.Personal marine bio experience
It is a predatory carnivorous species, as is the case in other Volutidae. It feeds on invertebrates, bivalves, other gastropods and on decayed material.
Life cycle Embryos develop into free-swimming planktonic marine larvae (trochophore) and later into juvenile veligers.Sealife Base
Bibliography Abbott, Robert Tucker (1974) - American Seashells: The Marine Mollusca of the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts of North America. 2nd ed. - Van Nostrand Reinhold Company New York Dall, W. H. 1907. A review of the American Volutidae Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 48 341–373. Linnaeus, C. (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Editio decima, reformata. Laurentius Salvius: Holmiae Verrill, A. H. 1950. Voluta musica, its forms, distribution and operculum Conchological Club of Southern California, Minutes 102 3–7.
References
External links
ITIS Encyclopedia of life