I’ve covered the adults elsewhere but here’s one laying eggs. The Baler glues them to solid substrate and lays them down layer by layer with regularly spaced holes and ridges to ensure good water flow. 

Photos by @gemfyre.

A very large carnivorous sea snail that we found at Point Peron the other day, where it was engrossed with devouring a Turban Shell (Turbo torquatus).

Balers have been used to scoop water out of canoes, which is how they got the common name, and while ‘melo’ means ‘apple-shaped’ it’s also been applied to the Latin for watermelons, eggplants, and other large oval objects.

Balers are generally nocturnal, burying themselves in the sand during the day, and feed on other molluscs including scallops, turban shells, tritons and even other volutes. They seize it with their large colourful foot and plugs the prey’s aperture, essentially smothering it. This one clearly found itself too far from open ground to bury itself and eat in peace, and was resting upside down on the rock platform just offshore.

Giant Marine Molluscs 

Melo sp.  More commonly known as a 'baler snail' due to the large shell which was once used to get the water out of canoes! My reaction when I found this one today at Rowes Bay - "OMG GIANT SNAIL, YOU MUST SIT ON MY ARM AND BE MY SQUISHY"