Rapana venosa   (Valenciennes, 1846)

Purple whelk

Native range | All suitable habitat | Point map | Year 2050
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Rapana venosa  AquaMaps  Data sources: GBIF OBIS
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Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | CoL | ITIS | WoRMS

Gastropoda | Neogastropoda | Muricidae

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Benthic; brackish; depth range 10 - 60 m (Ref. 83435).  Tropical; 4°C - 35°C (Ref. 88058); 41°N - 16°N, 53°E - 143°E

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Introductions

Indo-West Pacific. Introduced in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and Black Sea.

Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm ?  range ? - ? cm Max length : 16.1 cm SHH male/unsexed; (Ref. 83435)

Short description Morphology

The species has a short-spired, heavy shell with a large inflated deep body whorl and deep umbilicus. The columella is broad, smooth, and slightly concave. Small and elongated teeth are present along the edge of the outer lip of the large ovate aperture. The external shell ornamentation has smooth spiral ribs that end in regular blunt knobs at both the shoulder and the periphery of the body whorl. In addition, fine spiral ridges are crossed by low vertical riblets. Body color is variable from gray to orange-brown and rarely blonde, with darker brown dashes on the spiral ribs. The aperture and columella vary from deep orange to yellow or off-white. Spiral, vein-like coloration, varying from black to dark blue, occasionally occurs internally, originating at the individual teeth at the outer lip of the aperture.

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

A large, predatory gastropod (Ref. 87893). The juvenile and adult stage of this species are preyed upon by loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) (Ref. 87893). Larvae are dispersed with water currents (Ref. 87977). This gastropod is a successful invader of marine coastal/brackish ecosystems , being tolerant to wide variations in temperature, salinity and oxygen concentration (Ref. 87992, 87996). Rapa whelks are generally encountered in areas to depths of 30 m in the Black Sea; on sandy bottoms at 15 m covered by Zostera sp. and Cymodocea nodosa meadows (Ref. 7956). Also occurs in rocky and muddy habitat (Ref. 87909). Feeds on bivalves (Ref. 87979).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

This species is a non-broadcast spawner. Life cycle does not include trocophore stage. Also Ref. 833.

Main reference References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Tan, K.S. 2000. (Ref. 81755)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435)


CITES status (Ref. 108899)

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

  Harmless

Human uses

Fisheries: commercial
| FishSource | Sea Around Us

Tools

Internet sources

BHL | BOLD Systems | CISTI | DiscoverLife | FAO(Publication : search) | Fishipedia | GenBank (genome, nucleotide) | GloBI | Gomexsi | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | PubMed | Tree of Life | Wikipedia (Go, Search) | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Preferred temperature (Ref. 115969): 14 - 28, mean 25 (based on 570 cells).
Prior r = 0.78, 95% CL = 0.51 - 1.17, Based on 1 full stock assessment.
Nutrients: Calcium = 126 [75, 177] mg/100g; Iron = 4.79 [1.67, 7.92] mg/100g; Protein = 15.9 [14.8, 16.9] %; Omega3 = 0.331 [0.263, 0.400] g/100g; Selenium = 57.8 [48.5, 67.2] μg/100g; VitaminA = 0 μg/100g; Zinc = 1.97 [0.92, 3.02] mg/100g (wet weight).