species spotlight | DANIEL KNOP
The Gold-spot Egg Cowrie (Diminovula
aurantiomaculata) attains a maximum shell
length of around 3/8 inch ( 11 mm).
The
Gold-spot
Egg Cowrie
Diminovula aurantiomaculata
overview
Egg Cowries are parasitic organisms that live and
feed on soft corals and occasionally hitchhike
their way into reef aquariums. This beautiful
species spends practically its entire life on a host
coral of the genus Dendronephthya, never leaving
it because to do so would be to immediately lose
its camouflage. Under natural wild conditions,
however, the predation pressure by the cowries is
so low that the azooxanthellate coral can easily
compensate for the loss of tissue, and the cowrie
population on a host coral is, in turn, limited by
predation pressure; if there are too many of these
gastropods on a coral, there will be an increased
probability of some being discovered and eaten
by molluscivores (wrasses, for example).
all: d. knop
Phylum: Mollusca (mollusks)
Class: Gastropoda (gastropods)
Superfamily: Cypraeoidea (cowries and their allies)
Family: Ovulidae (egg cowries)
Genus and species: Diminovula aurantiomaculata
(Cate & Azuma, 1973)
DiStribution
Central Indo-Pacific, southern Japan (Okinawa)
to the Philippines and Indonesia, and thence to
eastern Australia.
