Voluta musica, common name the music volute, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Volutidae, the volutes.

Synonyms

Subspecies

Distribution

The species occurs on the mainland Caribbean coast in Colombia and Venezuela, and in the West Indies from the following islands or countries: Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Grenada, and Trinidad & Tobago.

Shell description

The maximum reported size of the shell is 115 mm. These medium-sized, very solid, axially ribbed shells are characterized by delicate blackish to reddish brown markings on a creamy background color, with a characteristic series of lines resembling a musical manuscript (hence the common name "music volute"). Specimens from the Eastern Caribbean island of Barbados are pink in color (var. "carneolata"). Deeper-water Barbados examples trapped alive at around 100 m. depth are orange in color.

Ecology

Voluta musica is usually found alive in muddy and sandy substrate at depths of 5 m to 28 m., although at Barbados this species has been found with their dorsums dry as they crawl across exposed South Coast reefs at very low tide and have been trapped alive at depths of about 100 m. along the island's West Coast. It is a predatory carnivorous species, as is the case in other Volutidae. It feeds on invertebrates, bivalves, other gastropods and on decayed material.

Life cycle

Embryos develop into free-swimming planktonic marine larvae (trochophore) and later into juvenile veligers.