Melo (gastropod)

Melo is a genus of extremely large sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Volutidae, the volutes. Because of their huge ovate shells, these snails are often known as "bailers" (the shells were sometimes used for bailing out canoes) or "melons" (because the shell resembles that fruit).

Melo
A shell of the Indian volute, Melo melo surrounded by a group of pearls from that species
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Mollusca
Class:
Gastropoda
(unranked):
clade Caenogastropoda
clade Hypsogastropoda
clade Neogastropoda
Superfamily:
Muricoidea
Family:
Volutidae
Genus:
Melo

Species in this genus sometimes produce large pearls. The image in the taxobox shows a group of these pearls with a shell of the species Melo melo.

Species

Species in the genus Melo include:

A live individual of what is probably Melo umbilicatus
A shell of Melo aethiopica
A shell of Melo melo
A juvenile shell of what is probably Melo amphora

Ecology

Parasites of Melo sp. include trematode Lophotaspis macdonaldi.[2]

References
  1. Broderip W. (1826). In: Sowerby, Gen. Shells, (28).
  2. Alevs, Philippe V.; Vieira, Fabiano M.; Santos, Cláudia P.; Scholz, Tomáš; Luque, José L. (2015-02-12). "A Checklist of the Aspidogastrea (Platyhelminthes: Trematoda) of the World". Zootaxa. 3918 (3): 339–96. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3918.3.2. ISSN 1175-5334. PMID 25781098.
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