Drupella cornus

The shell size of an adult varies between 28 mm and 40 mm. This whitish shell shows four rows of spiny, pointed nodules with numerous smaller spines between. The oval aperture is yellow. The outer lip is with three to four teeth.

Drupella cornus lays benthic egg capsules, which hatch into free-swimming planktonic veliger larvae [http://md1.csa.com/partners/viewrecord.php?requester=gs&collection=ENV&recid=2779154&q=%22Drupella+cornus%22&uid=790072380&setcookie=yes Turner S.J., The egg capsules and early life history of the corallivorous gastropod Drupella cornus (Roeding, 1798)., The Veliger. Vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 16-25. 1992; accessed : 18 November 2010] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120404173139/http://md1.csa.com/partners/viewrecord.php?requester=gs&collection=ENV&recid=2779154&q=%22Drupella+cornus%22&uid=790072380&setcookie=yes |date=April 4, 2012 }}

Drupella cornus is a predator of living coral, grazing on the coral tissue. An abundance of this snail can cause significant destruction to the hard-coral cover on reefs. There is a possible link between coral diseases and an outbreak of this snail.{{cite journal|last=Antonius|first=A.|author2=B. Riegl|title=Coral diseases and Drupella cornus invasion in the Red Sea |journal=Coral Reefs|volume=17|issue=1|pages=48|doi=10.1007/s003380050093|date=March 1998|s2cid=7260505 }} The snail is attracted to Montipora corals when these corals secrete montiporic acids{{cite journal|last=Masaki |first=Kita|title=Feeding attractants for the muricid gastropod Drupella cornus, a coral predator |journal=Tetrahedron Letters|year=2005|volume=46|issue=49|pages=8583–8585 |doi=10.1016/j.tetlet.2005.09.182|display-authors=etal}}

Drupella cornus commonly occurs on or under tabular corals of the genera Acropora and Montipora or on hard substrates in the lower intertidal zone and shallow sublittoral zone.{{cite journal|last=Johnson|first=Michael S. |author2=Kelley Holborn |author3=Robert Black|title=Fine-scale patchiness and genetic heterogeneity of recruits of the corallivorous gastropod Drupella cornus|journal=Journal of Marine Biology|volume=117|issue=1|pages=91–96|doi=10.1007/BF00346429|date=September 1993 |bibcode=1993MarBi.117...91J |s2cid=84621612 }} In areas where Acropora and Montipora coral are rare, D. Cornus has also been known to feed on other corals such as Porites in Kenya,{{cite journal|last=McClanahan|first=Timothy R.|title=Dynamics of Drupella cornus populations on Kenyan coral reefs.|journal=Proceedings of the 8th International Coral Reef Symposium|volume=1|pages=633–638|url=http://www.oceandocs.org/bitstream/handle/1834/634/CRS197-633.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y}} and Pocillopora and Porites in Hawaii.{{cite journal|last=Robertson|first=Robert|title=Review of the predators and parasites of stony corals, with special reference to symbiotic 683 prosobranch gastropods|journal=Pacific Science|volume=24|pages=43–54|url=http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/4022/v24n1-43-54.pdf?sequence=1}}

This species is distributed in the Red Sea and in the Indian Ocean along Aldabra, Chagos, Kenya, Madagascar, the Mascarene Basin, Mozambique, Tanzania, KwaZuluNatal, Gulf of Thailand,{{cite journal|last=Hoeksema|first=Bert W. |author2=Chad M. Scott |author3=James D. True|title=Dietary shift in corallivorous Drupella snails following a major bleaching event at Koh Tao, Gulf of Thailand|journal=Coral Reefs|volume=32|issue=2|pages=423–428|doi=10.1007/s00338-012-1005-x|year=2013 |bibcode=2013CorRe..32..423H |s2cid=253810385 }} Japan,{{cite journal|last=Fujioka |first=Y. |author2=K. Yamazato |title=Host selection of some Okinawan coral associated gastropods belonging to the genera Drupella, Coralliophila and Quoyula |journal=Galaxea|volume=2|pages=59–73}} and the Indo-Pacific.

{{Reflist}}

• Spry, J.F. (1961). The sea shells of Dar es Salaam: Gastropods. Tanganyika Notes and Records 56
• Drivas, J. & M. Jay (1988). Coquillages de La Réunion et de l'île Maurice

• {{Gastropods.com|key=9|id=4759|title=Drupella cornus|access-date=18 November 2010}}

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Category:Drupella

Category:Gastropods described in 1798