I.—The Proboscis and Oesophagus of Some British Turrids

Abstract

Synopsis: Haller (1888), one of the first to publish an account of the alimentary tract in the Gastropoda, was followed by Amaudrut (1898) who produced a detailed comparative account of “La partie anteriéure du tube digestif” in a number of gastropods. Later workers have either studied the complete alimentary system in one or two gastropods (Herrick 1906; Dakin 1912) or have been concerned with the functional morphology of particular organs, such as the oesophagus, stomach, (Graham 1941; 1949), and proboscis (Alpers 1931; Carriker 1943). Much of this scattered work has been collected by Fretter and Graham (1962). Effectively nothing is known about the functional morphology of the alimentary tract in many groups, including the neogastropod families Turridae, Terebridae, and Volutidae. This account of the proboscis and oesophagus forms part of a general study of the functional morphology of the Turridae.