Patella vulgata
Limpets in their natural environment separately ( here in the northwest Galicia ), an animal from the stone and turned to see it on the inside of the cup
The common limpet ( Patella vulgata ) is a species of snail that is found mainly in algae- rich areas of most rocky coasts.
Their cup-shaped shell like a low Sugarloaf. It reaches a length up to 60 mm. The limpets are becoming increasingly smaller the further they are sitting at the water line. It is covered with grooved grobstrahlig, often greenish or brownish, inner pearly, with alternating white and dark brown radiating stripes. The limpet lives sessile on rocks and stones in the intertidal or surf zone or the supra-and eulittoral. It matches perfectly with their irregular shell edge to small irregularities of the surface.
Your location leaves the limpet only at night to graze on vegetation. It is noteworthy that she returns at dawn to their original location. Limpets defend their pastures against conspecifics and other competing barnacles and mussels, in the ramming them with their shell. The population density of P. vulgata decreases with increasing algae growth.
Limpet rasps with their radula from the algae of the rock on which they live. Your trail of slime on which they are moving, they serve to orient themselves so that the same areas are visited not more than once. In addition, the mucus of the limpet support the growth of the Rock with new algae.
The limpet is very durable, it also considers it a short time to dry out, eg at low tide. They also survived the " desalination " of the surrounding water in rainfall or other freshwater inflows.
The storage locations of limpets can be identified by the round bowl tracks that are dug by the limpet by turning the shell into the ground. If the limpet visits their site, they can hold on through the existing shell impression especially close to the rocks. On the underside of a limpet is a large, circular suction cup. At the front end is its head with two tentacles. The largest part of the shell inside is covered by the mantle, whose edge is provided with further smaller tentacles. Between mantle and foot is the mantle groove in which are the gills. Limpets do not comb gill, but many gill filaments to breathe. The limpets are in the Atlantic, the Channel, represented in the North Sea and in the Mediterranean.
Limpets are used as food since the Magdalenian, their remains often form large middens. Excessive use led to a reduction in size of the worm. The shells were once used as jewelry.
Their taste is similar to the known mussel species in about. They are both raw and cooked for human consumption; However, you can find nowadays rarely as meal use.