Dictionary

dog whelk en · NOUN

Meanings

1. A carnivorous European mollusc, Nucella lapillus, found on rocky coasts.
   • 1971 January 14, Graham Chedd, Peter Stubbs, Gerald Wick (section editors), Monitor: Starving dog whelks grow teeth in the estuary, New Scientist, Volume 49, Number 734, page 57, A recent study of shell-shape in the dog whelk Nucella lapillus along the Bristol Channel suggests - that in progressively less saline conditions the species lives in a colonising situation, where periodic food shortages, rather than physiological limitations, decimate populations and sometimes lead to local extinction.
   • Evidently the dog whelks perceive the chemicals released by the crabs and their prey.[…]Dog whelks are believed to have evolved in the Pacific, and to have spread into the North Atlantic in the Pliocene, during a warm period when it was possible to pass along the coast of the Arctic Ocean. 1996, Colin Little, John A. Kitching, The Biology of Rocky Shores, page 144:
   • The dog-whelk is carnivorous; acorn barnacles and the mussel Mytilus edulis (p. 254) are the main prey species. 2011, J. D. Fish, S. Fish, A Student's Guide to the Seashore, 3rd edition, page 231:

Forms

Synonyms

purple · Atlantic dogwinkle

Translations (11)

de Nordische Purpurschnecke (Nucella lapillus) · ga faocha choirn (Nucella lapillus) · ga cuachma chon (Nucella lapillus) · fi purppurakotilo (Nucella lapillus) · nrf coque à j'vaux (Nucella lapillus) · fr pourpre (Nucella lapillus) · nrf chorchiéthe (Nucella lapillus) · fr pilau (Nucella lapillus) · ga faocha chapaill (Nucella lapillus) · nl purperslak (Nucella lapillus) · ru краси́льная багря́нка (Nucella lapillus)