Naticid drilling predation from tidal flats in northern Patagonia, SW Atlantic

MORÁN, GISELA A.; GORDILLO, SANDRA; BORETTO, GABRIELLA M.; MALVE, MARIANO E.

JOURNAL OF THE MARINE BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2020 p. 1 - 11

0025-3154

Naticids and muricids are the main drilling gastropod families that leave a characteristic holein their shelled prey. Drilling predation can be evaluated along spatial scales, and different latitudinalpatterns (equatorward, poleward, mid-latitude peaks or no trend at all) have alreadybeen described. For Argentine Patagonia, most studies have analysed muricid predation, butscant information is available on naticid predation. This study provides evidence of predationby the moon snail Notocochlis isabelleana on a thin and fragile burrowing bivalve, Darina solenoides, along the intertidal sandflats at Pozo Salado, San Matías Gulf, in northern Patagonia.To estimate the incidence of predation, articulated specimens of Darina solenoides (N = 432)were randomly collected in the intertidal zone. Drill holes (N = 94) were recorded in shelllengths ranging between 10 and 35 mm. Taking into account previous studies in the region,the intensity of mortality by drilling (22%) constitutes a higher value than expected for thislatitude. These results may help explain local patterns in a particular site in northernPatagonia which has been previously identified as an outlier, but further studies aimed atevaluating macrogeographic patterns are necessary for a better understanding of the regionalfactors that might be governing these predator?prey interactions.