Thylacodes sipho, the common worm-shell, is a species of sea snail, a worm shell, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Vermetidae, the worm snails.
Distribution
Endemic to Australia, found in all coastal states, more common in the south. The habitat is subtidal exposed reefs and rock platforms.
Description
Living in an irregularly coiled shell, up to 70 mm long, with a tube diameter of 4 to 10 mm. The early whorls of the shell are attached to a substrate such as rocks or shells, sometimes in aggregated groups. Feeding is on organic matter, trapped in strings of mucous, there is no operculum.[1][2][3][4]
References
- Gmelin J.F. 1791. Caroli a Linné. Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Lipsiae : Georg. Emanuel. Beer Vermes. Vol. 1(Part 6) pp. 3021–3910.
- Quoy, J.R. & Gaimard, J.P. 1834. Voyage de Découvertes de l'Astrolabe exécuté par Ordre du Roi, Pendant les Années 1826–1829. Paris : J. Tastu Zoologie Vol. 3 366 pp.
- Mörch, O.A.L. 1862. Review of the Vermetidae [Part 1]. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1862: 54-83
- Tate, R. & May, W.L. 1901. A revised census of the marine Mollusca of Tasmania. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 26(3): 344-471
- Cotton, B.C. 1959. South Australian Mollusca. Archaeogastropoda. Handbook of the Flora and Fauna of South Australia. Adelaide : South Australian Government Printer 449 pp.
- Hedley, C. 1916. A preliminary index of the Mollusca of Western Australia. Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Western Australia 1: 152-226
- Iredale, T. & McMichael, D.F. 1962. A reference list of the marine Mollusca of New South Wales. Memoirs of the Australian Museum 11: 1–109
- Wilson, B. 1993. Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch Gastropods. Kallaroo, Western Australia : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 1 408 pp.
- Bieler, R. & Petit, R.E. 2011. Catalogue of Recent and fossil “worm-snail” taxa of the families Vermetidae, Siliquariidae, and Turritellidae (Mollusca: Caenogastropoda). Zootaxa 2948: 1-103
