Mermaid's Necklace

Description:

This has turned out, to my surprise, to be the egg case of the Knobbed Whelk (Busycon carica), a mollusk of the Family Buccinidae. It was tightly coiled, brittle but flexible and felt like chitin. It stretched out to about 33 cm, and that was obviously only a piece. Several of these (of different lengths) washed up on the beach. Gulf of Mexico, Sihoplaya (south of Campeche City), Campeche. They are commonly called Mermaid Necklaces or Venus's Necklace. A few miles farther down the coast we bought a Whelk Shell from a vendor on the street. That big shell has turned out to be the actual Knobbed Whelk, the adult shell of my Mermaid Necklace! (Last 2 pictures).

Habitat:

Small beach strip among many rocks and heavy surf.

Notes:

This Whelk is a predator, feeding on other shells, especially bivalves. The egg case is a string of flat capsules containing up to 90 eggs each and are connected on one side so that they form a spiral. Not all eggs hatch and if you look closely, you can see eggs within some of the cases. The female buries the end of the chain in the sand so that the eggs can develop and hatch without washing up on the beach. http://seashellnews.com/page/2/ https://www.mitchellspublications.com/gu... http://www.okeefes.org/Whelks/Whelks.htm...