Description

This family includes several distinctive shell forms. Whelks are generally found along the Atlantic coast of North America, particularly in muddy bays and estuaries, where they are the most conspicuous gastropods. Crown and melon conches are more tropically distributed and typically found in brackish or muddy waters near mangrove forests. All are carnivorous, feeding on clams and oysters. Whelks use their shell lip to pry open a clam sufficiently for inserting the proboscis and commencing feeding, very much as do other Buccinacea species (Buccinidae; see also, Buccinum, opening a clam). This mode of feeding produces  considerable wear and tear on the shell, necessitating metabolic repair activity that conchologists feel is a limiting factor in the size of these molluscs (Georgia Shell Club, 1997).

 

Classification

Class: Gastropoda

Clade: Neogastropoda

Superfamily: Buccinoidea

Family: Melongenidae

 

Major Genera

• Genus: Busycon
• Genus: Melongena
• Genus: Pugilina
• Genus: Syrinx

Melongena corona (Gmelin, 1791)
Common Crown Conch

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