About Pyrazus ebeninus (Bruguière, 1792)
Pyrazus ebeninus (Bruguière, 1792), commonly called the Hercules club mud whelk, mud whelk, Hercules club whelk, or Hercules whelk, is a species of sea snail. It is a marine gastropod mollusk that belongs to the family Batillariidae. This species is endemic to Australia, where it mainly lives along the east coast and inhabits mud flats. Several other scientific names were previously used for this species: Clava herculea (Martyn, 1784), Cerithium ebeninum (Bruguière, 1792), Pyrazus baudini (Montfort, 1810), Lampania angulifera (Sowerby, 1866), and Pyrazus herculea. Pyrazus ebeninus is most abundant in tropical or subtropical waters off the coasts of Queensland and New South Wales, but individuals have been found as far south as Tasmania. The species had not been detected in the Port River, located in Adelaide, South Australia, since the last ice age around 10,000 years ago, until 2023 when researcher Brad Martin confirmed recent sightings of the whelk there. Scientists hypothesize that the population was introduced to the area through ballast water carried by ships, and existing growing beds of razorfish (Pinna bicolor) and oyster reefs have served as nurseries for the whelk. One individual sighting of this species was posted to the platform iNaturalist on 28 September 2022.
