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Dieren en planten

Animals   Molluscs   Marine snails   Limpet   Fauna rocky substrates   Freshwater snails   Nudibranch   Large sea snails   

Limpet

size:

up to 6 centimeter in diameter

color:

yellowish-light brown to brown-grey. Sometimes dark stripes from the middle to the edge

special features:

shell often covered with barnacles

age:

maximum 11 to 20 years

food:

algae and seaweed

enemies:

crabs, fisheries, starfish

reproduction:

sexual

  • Dut: Schaalhoren (patella, napslak, hoedschelp, puntkokkel)
  • Lat: Patella vulgata
  • Eng: Limpet
  • Ger: Napfschnecke
  • Dan: Albueskæl
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Limpets, foto fitis, sytske dijksen

Limpet

The limpet is cone-shaped and hardly stands out when attached to a stone. It is a very slow-moving animal. It scrapes vegetation off of the stones with its grating tongue. Should the limpet feel threatened, it attaches itself to its underground so firmly that it is almost impossible to peal off. It closes the shell off almost air-tight, so that crabs nor curious people get a chance. You often find limpets in flotsam originating from other coasts.

  • Distribution and habitat

    The limpet is a rocky shore marine snail commonly found along the North Sea coasts, especially where there is a lot of wash. Indigenous limpets are rare on the Dutch coast. One often finds limpets attached to flotsam originating from other coasts.

  • Small world

    Young limpets attach themselves to a hard surface, preferably a rock. They look for a nice dent, split or hollow in the rock to serve as a home base.
    The shape of their shell adapts to the surface of the home base. The edges are almost exactly identical to the unevenness in the stone, closing it totally off when they suck themselves to the stone. Predators are unable to get to the soft meat, since they can't find the opening.
    Closing the shell not only works against predators. The animal preserves a supply of seawater in the closed shell during low tide. Limpets are very slow and cannot crawl to water easily during low tide. To prevent dehydration and overheating, they make sure that it is always high tide inside the shell.
    At night, the animal leaves its home base to search for algae. It does not usually travel further than 1 meter from its home so that it reaches it safely again before it gets light. Check out the weblilnk below for a nice film of grazing limpets. You can also see that limpets return quickly to their home base when it gets light and how they manouver into their own space.