muricid gastropod Trophon longstaffi

Trophon longstaffi has been found in Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula in depths from 5 to 1,080 meters [3,4,5,6,7,8]. T. longstaffi has been collected up to five centimeters in length with greatest diameter of 2.5 centimeters [2,3,5,8]. The thin, white shell of T. longstaffi has six or seven whorls, tapers toward each end, is ovoid with a broader basal end, and has its surface marked with delicate parallel ridges [2].


Here Trophon longstaffi is just behind a juvenile giant Antarctic isopod Glyptonotus antarcticus.

The last whorl of the shell of T. longstaffi produces a short snout [2]. The convex whorls of the shell of T. longstaffi are shouldered and separated by a deep suture [2].

The seastar Diplasterias brucei is one of the predators of T. longstaffi [1].



Trophon longstaffi is a predator of the bivalves Laternula elliptica, Limatula hodgsoni (shown here), and Yoldia eightsi and the brachiopod Liothyrella uva [1,8]. In attacking prey, T. longstaffi drills through the prey shells using secreted chemicals and then uses its radula to eat the prey; T. longstaffi also may attack by wedging open a bivalve shell [8]. A drilling attack by T. longstaffi has a mean duration of 20-29 days until completion, depending on the prey species [8]. T. longstaffi attacks and eats infrequently; in an aquarium study, the mean time between feeding was nine months, with some individuals not feeding for thirty months [8].

1: Antarctic Ecology, Volume 1. MW Holdgate, ed. NY: Academic Press, 1970. pp.244-258; 2: Mollusca. II. Gastropoda. EA Smith IN: Natural History : Volume II. Zoology (Vertebrata: Mollusca: Crustacea). British National Antarctic Expedition 1901-1904. J Bell, ed. London : British Museum, 1907. p.3; 3: Tethys Supplement 4:105-134, 1972; 4: Advances in Marine Biology 10:1-216, 1972; 5: Antarctic Mollusca : with Special Reference to the Fauna of the Ross Sea. RK Dell. Wellington, NZ : Royal Society of New Zealand, 1990. Bulletin 27, Royal Society of New Zealand; 6: A Survey of the Marine Fauna in Shallow Coastal Waters of the Vestfold Hills and Rauer Islands, Antarctica. MJ Tucker & HR Burton. ANARE Research Notes 55, 1987; 7: Taxonomic Study on Antarctic Gastropods Collected by Japanese Antarctic Research Expeditions. H Numanami. Memoirs of National Institute of Polar Research, Series E (Biology and Medical Science), Number 39. Tokyo : National Institute of Polar Research, 1996; 8: Polar Biology 26(3):208-217, 2003

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