Intersting Jeweled Topsnail

Jeweled topsnail

Common Name: Purple-ring topsnail, Blue-ring topsnail or Jeweled topsnail.

Scientific name: Calliostoma annulatum

Distribution: Kelp Forests of North America

Jeweled top snail

Habitat: Kelp Forest, Class: Gastropoda

Description:

The jeweled topsnail is a little beautiful snail that measures about 2 to 2.5 cm long. The most attractive part of it’s body is the beautiful golden and bright pink coloured shell and dotted with brown on the spiral rows of grains, the periphery or lower edge of each whorl encircled by a zone of violet or magenta stripes, the axis surrounded by a tract of the same.These bright colons quickly fade after the animal dies. The head and foot of the animal has a yellow-orange colour with brown spots. It can move rapidly (20-30 feet in a day) when climbing up kelp stalks toward the surface.

Diet: The snail is omnivorous,eat mainly kelp, Algae, hydroids, bryozoans even fish corpses.

Interesting Fact: This snails graze on algae with their file-like tongues.