English

A group of live dog whelks on the barnacles which they eat.

Alternative forms

• dog-whelk, dogwhelk

Noun

dog whelk ‎(plural dog whelks)

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.

   • 1996, Colin Little, John A. Kitching, The Biology of Rocky Shores, page 144,

     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.

   • 2011, J. D. Fish, S. Fish, A Student's Guide to the Seashore, 3rd Edition, page 231,

     The dog-whelk is carnivorous; acorn barnacles and the mussel Mytilus edulis (p. 254) are the main prey species.

Synonyms

• (Nucella lapillus): Atlantic dogwinkle, purple

Translations