whelk as a bugle

The whelks are a food shellfish.  Some species of whelks have been eaten by not only the people of the present societies but also those of the ancient times.

Though their inner bodies are soft, whelks, like some of their shellfish relatives, break open even the double-shelled animals, such as clams, mussels, oysters, etc. with the help of their ‘proboscis’, ‘muscular foot’ and the radula, the rough tongue!  They make holes in the shells with the tongue and then push their proboscis into the hole and suck up the soft body holding the prey tight with their small, muscular foot!

Whelks have both sexes, the male having a relatively long penis, the male sexual organ.

whelk egg case

After mating, the female fertilises the eggs in its body, and (in most species) lay a long string of eggs, called ‘egg case’ which has hundreds of small sections with a baby in each section.  The babies look the same as the adults when they come out of their egg case.

Busycon whelk’s egg capsules (egg case) is often called ‘mermaid’s necklace’ and ‘fisherman’s soap’.  It is called ‘fisherman’s soap’ because it gives out a kind of soapy bubbly substance (lather) when rubbed with sea water!

Though very small, the baby whelks are known to eat away their siblings (= other babies from the same egg case) – the ones that are hatched late or look weak!

The ‘dog whelk’ is also called ‘purple whelk’ not because it is purple in colour, but because of the poisonous substance, produced from its anal glands. This substance was made into a purple dye (a kind of substance used to give colour to cloth), and was used by the ancient civilisations, such as Phoenicians, to dye the robes of the emperors and kings, and also by the American tribes in olden days.