The flamingo tongue snail (''Cyphoma gibbosum'') is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of small but brightly colored

sea snail Sea snails are slow-moving marine (ocean), marine gastropod Mollusca, molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the Taxonomic classification, taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguishe ...

, a marine

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...

in the family

Ovulidae Ovulidae, common names the ovulids, cowry allies or false cowries, is a family (biology), family of small to large predatory or parasitic sea snails, marine (ocean), marine gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Cypraeoidea, the cowries and the co ...

, the ovulids, cowry allies or false cowries.Rosenberg, G. (2010). Cyphoma gibbosum (Linnaeus, 1758). In: MolluscaBase (2017). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at www.marinespecies.org on 2017-06-27
/ref>

Taxonomy

A 2017 DNA analysis confirmed that ''Cyphoma signatum'' and ''Cyphoma mcgintyi'' are genetically homogenous with ''Cyphoma gibbosum'', and that each type are morphological variations of a single species.

Description

Alive, the snail appears bright orange-yellow in color with black markings. However, these colors are not in the shell, but are only due to live mantle tissue which usually covers the shell. The mantle flaps can be retracted, exposing the shell, but this usually happens only when the animal is attacked. The shells reach on average of length, with a minimum size of and a maximum

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

length of .Welch J. J. (2010). "The "Island Rule" and Deep-Sea Gastropods: Re-Examining the Evidence". '' PLOS One'' 5(1): e8776. . The shape is usually elongated and the dorsum shows a thick transversal ridge. The dorsum surface is smooth and shiny and may be white or orange, with no markings at all except a longitudinal white or cream band. The base and the interior of a ''C. gibbosum'' shell is white or pinkish, with a wide aperture.

Distribution and habitat

This is the most common of several species in the genus ''Cyphoma'', which lives in the tropical waters of the western Atlantic Ocean from

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

to northern coast of Brazil, including off

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

, in the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

and the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

, and off the

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea, forming part of the West Indies in Caribbean, Caribbean region of the Americas. They are distinguished from the larger islands of the Greater Antilles to the west. They form an arc w ...

. The minimum recorded depth is 0.3 m, and the maximum recorded depth is 90 m.

Ecology

The minimum recorded depth is at the surface, and the maximum recorded depth is 29 m. The flamingo tongue snail feeds by browsing on the living tissues of the soft corals on which it lives. Common prey include ''

Briareum ''Briareum'' is a genus of soft corals in the family Briareidae Briareidae is a family of corals, a member of the phylum Cnidaria. Genera Genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biolo ...

'' spp., ''

Gorgonia ''Gorgonia'' is a genus of soft corals, sea fans in the family Gorgoniidae. Species The World Register of Marine Species lists these species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals o ...

'' spp., '' Plexaura'' spp., and '' Plexaurella'' spp. Adult females of ''C. gibbosum'' attach eggs to coral which they have recently fed upon. After roughly 10 days, the larvae hatch. They are planktonic and eventually settle onto other gorgonian corals. Juveniles tend to remain on the underside of coral branches, while adults are far more visible and mobile. An adult scrapes the polyps off the coral with its radula, leaving an easily visible feeding scar on the coral. However, the corals can regrow the polyps, so predation by ''C. gibbosum'' is generally not lethal.

Conservation status

This species used to be common, but it has become rather uncommon in heavily visited areas because of over-collecting by snorkelers and scuba divers, who make the mistake of thinking that the bright colors are in the shell of the animal.

References

Flamingo tongue snail

External links

*
Cate, C. N. 1973. A systematic revision of the recent Cypraeid family Ovulidae. Veliger 15 (supplement): 1-117

Reijnen B.T. and van der Meij S.E.T. (2017). Coat of many colours? DNA reveals polymorphism of mantle patterns and colouration in Caribbean Cyphoma Röding, 1798 (Gastropoda, Ovulidae). PeerJ. 5: e3018
* {{Taxonbar, from1=Q2373541, from2=Q3171984, from3=Q1093799 Ovulidae Gastropods described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus