Harpa

Harpa major, William Charles Linnaeus Martin: Pictorial Museum of Animated Nature (1848-1849), vol. 2, p. 236

Harpa is the name of a genus of snail from the family of the harp snails ( Harpidae ), which is represented in tropical waters in the Indo-Pacific and on the West African coast of the Atlantic.

Features

The dextral housing of Harpa - types have a large body handling and a short thread. The short Siphonalkanal is formed from a flat notch on the outer lip of the mouth towards the columella. The protoconch has 3 or 4 usually violet, knotty whorls. The thread is formed by the following three whorls. Characteristic of the shells of the genus Harpa are formed as longitudinal ribs varices, each run towards the thread in a short spine. They are usually drawn with red and pink zones while having longitudinal grooves extending therebetween red-brown spots on a flesh-colored base. The snails have no operculum.

The body of the worm has a vivid coloring of various red, brown and yellow shades with spots on a lighter background. The probe and Sipho are curled irregularly. The eyes are located at the base of the sensor. The base is very large and is made of a crescent-shaped, and a very wide Propodium Metapodium which are connected only at a narrow place. In case of failure of the front part of the metapodium may be removed by autotomy. By continuing movement of the discarded part can distract a predator. The missing piece is regenerated.

The radula is of type Stenoglossa ( Rachiglossa ), where only the central tooth and sometimes two lateral teeth are made. It is generally very small and is in some cases only in young animals before.

The food of the Harpa species consists of decapods, which are covered with the Propodium and wedged between it and the Metapodium and then wrapped by sticky mucus. The exact feeding process is not documented. There remain empty crab shells.

The snails are dioecious. The male mated the female with his penis. The female lays egg masses with 10 to 15 egg capsules, each containing 3,000 to 4,000 eggs. The hatching veliger larvae make up for metamorphosis finished young snail phase as plankton through.

History of systematics

Harpa indicates a harp in Latin. Linnaeus 1758 describes two species of the genus Buccinum (B. harpa and B. costatum ) as a worm with the same type, clearly divorced ( with B. costatum crowded ) and spiked longitudinal ribs, which lives on Bengal. As a generic name is Harpa, the German harp, called with 7 types of Peter Friedrich Röding 1798 in the catalog of Conch Collection of Joachim Friedrich Bolten.