Busycon canaliculatum Linnaeus   Return to Biology 2009 Return to Marine Biology

A gastropod mollusk of the Family Melongidae, growing to a height of 175 mm. The shell is a pale buffy gray color, with the interior of the aperture yellow in fresh specimens. With five to six turreted whorls, marked by a distinct channel at the suture, forming a winding terrace up the spire. With a long, prominent siphonal canal. In life the shell carries a dense yellowish-brown periostracum bristling with stiff hairs. A voracious feeder, destroying bivalves almost as large as themselves. Preyed upon in turn by crustaceans and fish. Range: from Cape Cod southward to northern Florida and the Gulf of Mexico; lower intertidal to subtidal in water depths down to 20 m; along bay and ocean beaches where salinities are greater than 20 parts per million. Edible: the muscular foot must be beaten or thinly sliced to overcome its rubberiness. With its relatives it is sold in Chinese markets, and is the main ingredient of the Italian disk scungili. The column of the broken shell was formerly used by American Indians for making a type of wampum. A favorite of casual collectors and artists. Many of the largest shells found along the New Jersey shore are worn and broken subfossils reworked from older offshore deposits: the dark bluish-black color distinguishes these from more recent shells, which are generally smaller. Perhaps intensive gathering of the Busycon for shell-collections or for food prevents the gastropod from growing to full size. Formerly placed in the Genus Fulgur, where one finds it listed in the older literature.