''Melampus coffea'', commonly known as the coffee bean snail, is a species of small air-breathing salt marsh snail, a

pulmonate Pulmonata or pulmonates, is an informal group (previously an order, and before that a subclass) of snails and slugs characterized by the ability to breathe air, by virtue of having a pallial lung instead of a gill, or gills. The group includ ...

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

mollusk in the family Ellobiidae.Rosenberg, G. (2014). Melampus coffea (Linnaeus, 1758). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=420640 on 2015-02-24

Distribution

The coffee bean snail is found on both coasts of Florida and throughout the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

Description

The maximum recorded

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 ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

length is 23 mm.Welch J. J. (2010). "The "Island Rule" and Deep-Sea Gastropods: Re-Examining the Evidence". '' PLoS ONE'' 5(1): e8776. .

Ecology

Minimum recorded depth is -0.3 m. Maximum recorded depth is 0.3 m. This small snail is commonly found in the intertidal zone of

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in several ...

s amongst the roots and branches. It is similar in appearance to ''

Melampus bidentatus ''Melampus bidentatus'' common name the "common marsh snail", "eastern melampus", or "coffee bean snail" is a species of small, amphibious air-breathing snail, a pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Ellobiidae. Description The maximum re ...

'' and the two are often confused. ''Melampus bidentatus'' is slightly larger and is more likely to be found in a salt marsh as opposed to mangrove habitat for ''Melampus coffea''. Like other species of ''Melampus'', the coffee bean snail is one of the few

snails to reproduce via planktonic larvae called

veliger A veliger is the planktonic larva of many kinds of sea snails and freshwater snails, as well as most bivalve molluscs (clams) and tusk shells. Description The veliger is the characteristic larva of the gastropod, bivalve and scaphopod ...

s (Ruppert & Barnes 1994). Upon hatching, the veligers will spend between 4–6 weeks in the

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a cr ...

, and then return to the mangroves on a high tide, and

metamorphose Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some inse ...

into juvenile snails. This species is a

detritivore Detritivores (also known as detrivores, detritophages, detritus feeders, or detritus eaters) are heterotrophs that obtain nutrients by consuming detritus (decomposing plant and animal parts as well as feces). There are many kinds of invertebrate ...

and

herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthp ...

, foraging upon fresh and decaying mangrove leaf litter. The coffee bean snail engages in vertical migration leading up to the time of high tide, in order to escape

inundation A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrolog ...

and the increased risk of

predation Predation is a biological interaction In ecology, a biological interaction is the effect that a pair of organisms living together in a community have on each other. They can be either of the same species (intraspecific interactions), or o ...

by various fish species.McKee K. L. & Faulkner P.. (2000). "Restoration of biogeochemical function in mangrove forests". ''

Restor. Ecol. ''Restoration Ecology'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research on restoration ecology. It was established in 1993 and is published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Society for Ecological Restoration. The editor-in-chi ...

'' 8: 247-259.

References

* Rosenberg, G., F. Moretzsohn, and E. F. García. 2009. ''Gastropoda (Mollusca) of the Gulf of Mexico'', Pp. 579–699 in Felder, D.L. and D.K. Camp (eds.), Gulf of Mexico–Origins, Waters, and Biota. Biodiversity. Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas

External links

Malacolog info, spelling ''Melampus coffea''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q6811150 Ellobiidae Gastropods described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus