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Pedipes mirabilis (Megerle von Muhlfeld, 1816) Miraculous Pedipes |
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Scanning Electron Micrographs (SEM) |
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| From grunge collected from a mangrove beach on the Jupiter Sound (Indian River) shore of Coral Cove Park (just S of Blowing Rock Preserve) by Rick Edwards in April and July, 2021 and later culled by him and H. G. Lee (2.27 mm. on the top and 1.48 mm. for the bottom two images). SEMs performed by H. G. Lee in collaboration with Dr. Ann Heatherington, Dept. of Geological Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. Note the involute protoconch (sinistral; hyperstrophic; growing "upside-own"). This species, like other marine pulmonates of the Ellobiidae (synonym; Melampidae) and Siphonariidae exhibit this pattern of shell development referred to as heterostrophy, ultimately dextral in almost all cases. The exception is the sinistrally heterostophic genus Blauneria; see Blauneria heteroclita (Montagu, 1808) Left-hand Melampus. |
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