the-star-stuff:

How Bubble-Rafting Snails Evolved

Image 1: A female violet snail, Janthina exigua, hangs from a float of homemade mucus. 

Image 2: A large female snail in the Recluzia cf. jehennei species preys upon aPortuguese man-of-war while perched on a raft of mucus bubbles. A tiny snail of the same species clings to the underside of the female’s float.

Image 3: A bubble-rafting violet snail feeds on a Portuguese man-of-war in Hawaii.

Image 4: A female violet snail, Janthina janthina, is the most common species of bubble rafter. J. janthina is also the only bubble-rafting species in which females brood their young inside their bodies instead of laying egg capsules on their floats, Churchill noted. 

 Photograph Courtesy: 1, 2 and 4 Denis Riek, 3 David Fleetham

(via discoverynews)

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