The Mulberry Oyster Borer [Placeholder Image]

The mulberry oyster borer (Morula marginalba), also known as the mulberry whelk, is a gastropod that primarily feeds on oysters. It is part of the Family Muricidae, which encompasses predatory snails, and the Order Neogastropoda, which includes snail families that have one auricle, one kidney, and one monopectinate gill (gill filaments that develop on only one side of the central axis).

The mulberry whelk prefers the intertidal zone, compared to other, herbivorous sea snails which prefer the upper littoral and the splash zone. It can be found hiding in crevices, often with other oyster borers, and only comes out to feed.

Like the other sea snails, it prefers pocked and scarred substrates in order to avoid drying out and being preyed upon by birds during the daytime. In the picture attached, this mulberry oyster borer is making their way over to a shaded crevice, likely in order to hide given the outgoing tide.

Mulberry oyster borers are carnivorous, and feed on barnacles, white tube worms, and other molluscs like limpets, and hence the name, oysters. It feeds by boring holes into the shell or tube of its prey using its toothed radula, then injects digestive enzymes to break it up. It can take up to two days to break through the shell to feed! Very persistent and very hungry.

As mentioned with the Blue Periwinkles, Mulberry Oyster Borers build their shells out of calcium carbonate and will be susceptible to dissolving due to ocean acidification and changing ocean chemistry.

Apparently nobody's tried to eat these, oddly enough.