#nacellidae

A Nacellid limpet endemic to New Zealand. That's about my limit on the limpet.

AKA Patella luctuosa, margaritaria, nodosa and ornata.

A second limpet from around the base of Paritutu Rock, a 156 meter tall volcanic plug on the coast at New Plymouth.

Like the previous, an Aotearoan endemic. The peak of this one's shell has been worn away, but that's not unusual in older intertidal limpets.

AKA Cellana radians perana, Helcioniscus radians, Nacella flexuosa, and Patella antipodum, argentea, argyropsis, decora, earlii, flexuosa, morio, olivacea, pholidota, radians & radiatilis.

A true limpet endemic to New Zealand's rocky coastlines, but quite variable in form - hence all the synonyms above.

Like other limpets, a marine mollusc with a flattened, cone-shaped shell, usually found adhering strongly to rocks, where they graze on algal biofilms. Some species have a home groove that they return to, where they can clamp themselves down to survive low tide and fend off predators.

The radula of limpets is among the strongest biological materials known, about five times stronger than that of spider silk, with teeth woven from the iron mineral goethite.

'furrowed skin-scraper, small chamber'

Originally described as Patella strigilis in 1841 by French naval surgeon and naturalists Jacques Bernard Hombron (1798–1852) and Honoré Jacquinot (1815-1887) after the French voyage of the Astrolabe and Zélée to investigate the perimeter of Antarctica. AKA Patella illuminata, Patella pottsi, Patella redimiculum.

New Zealand malacologist, naturalist and palaeontologist Arthur William Baden Powell (1901 – 1987) listed several subspecies in his 1979 New Zealand Mollusca, but these are no longer accepted.

A large limpet endemic to the South Island of New Zealand, adjacent smaller islands, and some of NZ's subantarctic islands.

The variegation refers to not only the colour of this very common south-eastern limpet, but to the changing shape of the shell depending on how exposed a position it’s living in. Flatter shells are found subtidally or close to the seaward edge of  rock platforms, and high-profile shells live higher up the shore. This is the result of two different pressures - resistance to waves and resistance to desiccation. Shells on the seaward edge of the rock platform face stronger wave action, and lower shells cope better with high wave forces. Higher up the rocks limpets clamp down more tightly to prevent water loss, pulling the mantle (which secretes the shell), closer to the body. Thus the shell grows taller.

Herbivores that graze of the rock surface when the tide is in. They’re extremely efficient at stripping all microalgae and spores off the surface, and the major factor in keeping intertidal rock surfaces bare of algae.