Life of a specialised and a non-specialised carnivore: Comparative behaviour and functional morphology of two species of terrestrial molluscs (Gastropoda: Rhytididae) in South Africa

This dataset contains the digitized treatments in Plazi based on the original journal article Muratov, Igor V. (2024): Life of a specialised and a non-specialised carnivore: Comparative behaviour and functional morphology of two species of terrestrial molluscs (Gastropoda: Rhytididae) in South Africa. Indago 41: 1-13, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10884902, URL: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10884902 ABSTRACT Behaviour of two southern African endemics from the family Rhytididae, Chlamydephorus burnupi (E.A. Smith, 1892) and Nata vernicosa (Krauss, 1848), is observed and discussed.

The sophisticated hunting behaviour of the African Rhytididae has likely evolved from an opportunistic carrion diet, as well as consumption of earthworms that surfaced after the rain, followed by specialisation in preying on slugs and snails. Nata vernicosa, one of the smaller shelled rhytidids, demonstrates feeding flexibility by consuming any snail that it is capable of killing, as well as carrion every time it is found.