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#1298 - Melo miltonis - Southern Baler
I’ve covered the adults elsewhere but here’s one laying eggs. The Baler glues them to solid substrate and lays them down layer by layer with regularly spaced holes and ridges to ensure good water flow.
Point Peron - observation and photo by Belinda Forbes
#1206 - Melo miltonis - Southern Baler
Photos by @gemfyre.
A very large carnivorous sea snail that we found at Point Peron the other day, where it was engrossed with devouring a Turban Shell (Turbo torquatus).
Balers have been used to scoop water out of canoes, which is how they got the common name, and while ‘melo’ means ‘apple-shaped’ it’s also been applied to the Latin for watermelons, eggplants, and other large oval objects.
Balers are generally nocturnal, burying themselves in the sand during the day, and feed on other molluscs including scallops, turban shells, tritons and even other volutes. They seize it with their large colourful foot and plugs the prey’s aperture, essentially smothering it. This one clearly found itself too far from open ground to bury itself and eat in peace, and was resting upside down on the rock platform just offshore.
When breeding, Baler shells lay a first layer of eggs onto a rock or another shell and then stack more eggs on top, layer by layer, to form a hollow case. enabling the water flow to penetrate and ensure circulation around the eggs. An egg-case can contain more than 100 young snails, who are ready to hunt their own prey when they emerge.
A fair-sized Melo amphora
Giant Marine Molluscs
A False trumpet snail (syrinx aruanus) and a Baler shell (melo amphora) on display at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. The false trumpet is the largest living marine snail in the world but very little is known about the ecology and behaviour of the species. These two species are the largest gastropods in northern Australian waters.
Melo sp. More commonly known as a 'baler snail' due to the large shell which was once used to get the water out of canoes! My reaction when I found this one today at Rowes Bay - "OMG GIANT SNAIL, YOU MUST SIT ON MY ARM AND BE MY SQUISHY"
Photographer: Melanie Wood
