About Hydatina physis (Linnaeus, 1758)
Hydatina physis is a species of bubble snail that lives in shallow water, where it crawls and burrows into sand. Its diet includes polychaete worms from the family Cirratulidae, mussels, and slugs. The body color of this species can range from very dark to pale pinkish white. The snail's shell is thin, globose, and fragile; the largest whorl covers all other smaller whorls, and no operculum is present. The snail has a large foot with lateral parapodia, which are fleshy, wing-like flaps. Its large body cannot be fully retracted back into the shell, and its sensory mechanisms are well-developed. When laying eggs, the egg mass is gathered on the mantle before being attached to sand via a mucous thread. The shell itself is translucent white with transverse brown lines, and reaches a maximum height of 57 mm and maximum width of 46 mm. This bubble snail has a circumglobal distribution across tropical waters, and can be found in the Red Sea, South Africa, West Africa, the Arabian Sea, the Maldives, the area from the Philippines to Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, the Canary Islands, Brazil, and the Lusitanic area of Europe.
