The depths of the World Ocean have become a refuge for thousands of amazing and unusual creatures. Science today knows only a small part of them. And one of them is a unique creation - the mollusk “Sea Angel”. And as you can see for yourself after reading this article, angels do not only live in heaven.
Shellfish "Sea Angel": appearance
The Latin name of this mollusk is Clione limacina, and it is one of the most unusual creatures inhabiting the cold waters of such oceans as the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific. Previously, scientists believed that these mollusks live in both hemispheres, but later it turned out that in Antarctica they are a completely different species, or rather Clione antarctica.
The translucent miniature creature is a graceful swimmer; watching it, one gets the impression that it is performing a beautiful dance with leisurely flapping of its wings, as if soaring in the air.
Admiring this mesmerizing flight, it is difficult to imagine that the mollusk “Sea Angel” is an evolved ancient snail, its relatives are slugs and ordinary snails that you can find in your garden.
It is noteworthy that the embryos of these mollusks, like snails, have a real spiral shell, which simply falls off in the early stages of development. And the wings of an angel are just a crawling leg improved by evolution, allowing these unusual winged creatures to successfully master a completely new habitat - the thickness of the ocean.
Angels flap their wings, like butterflies, along the same trajectory - in a figure eight. This complex type of movement clearly demonstrates the very high level of development of the mollusk’s nervous system. Clusters of nerve cells - pedal ganglia - are responsible for swimming, forming a certain “organ” like the brain. It is this that allows the angelfish to masterfully and quickly move through the water column, which contributes to effective hunting.
Lifestyle
Despite its deceptive angelic appearance, this pteropod is a merciless predator that uses sophisticated tactics in hunting. The diet of adult mollusks, as well as their later larvae, consists of “sea devils” - shellfish pteropods (lat. Limacina helicina). Devils are close relatives of angels, being tiny five-millimeter animals with a fragile shell. These eared swimming snails are desirable prey for sea angels.
The process of hunting devils is an exciting spectacle that is worthy of exciting horror films. Nature has equipped these creatures with the perfect murder weapon. In the head of the angels there are 6 hook-shaped tentacles - buccal cones, of enormous size, studded with small spines with a very sticky secretion. When the angelfish mollusk gets close to a potential victim, its head “splits” into two parts, from which giant tentacle hooks appear at lightning speed.
Angels and devils are pteropods. Sea angels, or sea angels (Clione limacina), live mainly in the cold waters of the northern seas, beyond the Arctic Circle. This is a circumpolar species, that is, living at both poles, both under the ice of the Arctic and off the coast of Antarctica. In the northern hemisphere, the number of its representatives is much greater. The angelfish leads a planktonic lifestyle, swimming in the water column, from the murky depths of a thousand or more meters to the very surface. Wide, flattened wings help it swim - once upon a time, a long time ago, a crawling leg turned into them (hence the name of the group of mollusks - pteropods). Swimming in the water column and actively feeding, clyons quite quickly grow to their maximum size, which is only 4–5 centimeters. Afterwards, they begin to accumulate what they have eaten and digested in the form of subcutaneous fat drops, which is why a well-fed adult angel is dotted with small light dots.
Sea angels are extremely active predators, and their only prey is another pteropod - monkfish.Klion's nutrition is one of its most amazing features. Angels are extremely active predators, and their only prey is another pteropod, Limacina helicina, which is called monkfish for its dark, almost black color. Compared to angels, devils are very tiny - the size of their shell rarely exceeds a few millimeters, on average only two or three. Angels swim serenely almost all the time, slowly flapping their wings. But as soon as a devil appears nearby, the head of the clyon instantly splits in two, and six huge orange hooks turn out of it - buccal cones covered with small rough tubercles. At the same time, the Klion begins to frantically flap its wings and swim in circles. As soon as the unfortunate victim touches one of the buccal cones, the angel collapses them, and the little devil is squeezed, as if between the fingers of two hands. Inside the head, in the center, there is another pair of hook-shaped jaws hidden, as well as a radula - a special chitinous “grater” with teeth, which is used for grinding food. Almost all known mollusks have it. After the angel grabs the devil, he needs to turn the mouth of the shell in such a way as to pull out the food from there. Despite the fact that the Limacina shell is very thin and fragile, only a large angel can break it. To rotate the shell into a comfortable position, the angel unclenches the buccal cones for half a second, then contracts again, and so on several times; In these seconds, the devil tries to escape, but every time he is caught, without even having time to flap his wings. Finally, he turns the way the angel needs, and he begins to eat. Hard hooks of the jaws pull the soft body of the mollusk out of the shell, and the radula grinds it into a puree, which enters the esophagus into the large stomach. The process of eating the devil is far from fast, so the angel continues to swim calmly, holding its prey between the halves of its head. If the predator is still small, only a couple of times larger than its prey, then it looks very comical - it swims as if in a helmet, with a devil on its head, since there is no other way to hold the captive - when the prey is caught, the buccal cones are retracted . Angels are quite voracious: in a season, one individual eats up to five hundred devils! From time to time there are unusual outbreaks in the numbers of both devils and angels. There were cases when there were more than 300 angels per cubic meter of water. The density of devils at times also exceeds all reasonable limits, and the sea becomes like an oversaturated living broth, when at low tide hundreds and thousands of these small pteropods remain in each puddle. It is surprising that, according to all observations, except for devils, angels do not eat anything at all. But devils appear en masse in the sea for a very short period of time - only two to three weeks at the end of spring - after which they disappear. Scientific studies have shown that on fat reserves accumulated during active feeding, angels are able to live without food for three to four months, but what they eat the rest of the time is a mystery, as well as where they go. After all, after the influx of devils, many angels immediately appear, and then they simply disappear from the plankton and are found very rarely. Despite the fact that back in the 19th century angels were subjected to detailed anatomical studies, and for half of the 20th century their physiology was very seriously studied, the full life cycle of these creatures, from birth to death, is unknown to science. No one can still explain their sudden disappearance. It is believed that they go deep and spend most of the year there. Unfortunately, their life cycle is extremely difficult to trace, since the necessary observations require expensive manned underwater vehicles with photo and video cameras and a lot of time and effort. “Animals living in the water column are very poorly studied,” says BBS director Alexander Tsetlin. – The fact is that even if they can be kept for some time in marine aquariums, they only survive there. To learn something about their behavior, nutrition, vision and other senses, you need to study them in their natural environment. That is, floating in the water with them, observing, photographing.” How do sea angels live and what do they do at great depths? BBS scientists find this mystery damn interesting and watch them from year to year.
Maybe it’s not for nothing that they say that “the devils are muddying the waters”? Oh, this is what monkfish looks like? You know, it’s not scary at all!
Is the devil food for the angel?
If you take a look at our earthly fauna, you will see that our nature is a great dreamer! It must be said that researchers do not lag behind nature, coming up with unimaginable names for some animals. For example, among sea mollusks there are angelfish and monkfish. Although there is also fish. Well, if the appearance of the sea angel somehow fits the name, then why the other mollusk was called the little devil is completely unclear. Quite a cute creature. And his behavior is completely inappropriate for the devil...
Another name for monkfish is Limacina. This is a species of gastropod mollusk belonging to the order Thecosomata. Monkfish is a member of the Limacina family, genus Limacina.
The appearance of this animal is absolutely harmless. This is a very small mollusk - the body length often does not exceed 1.5 centimeters. Rarely are specimens growing up to three centimeters. The diameter of the mollusk shell is only 4 millimeters. It is not entirely clear why the Limacina shell is needed at all, because it does not perform a protective function. She is very fragile and thin.
The body of the animal has a blackish-violet tint, which sometimes shimmers with purple. The animal's wings have a lighter tone than the rest of the body. The shell is colored brownish and has 5 whorls.
Where does monkfish live?
For a comfortable life, these mollusks need very cold waters, so their habitat is the waters of the Atlantic (northern zones) and Arctic oceans.
Lifestyle of the devil clam
Perhaps the only thing that the monkfish has in common with its name is its predatory nature. The mollusk has special glands that secrete a sticky substance resembling mucus. With the help of this mucus, the limacina, just like a spider, weaves a network into which its prey is caught. It is this that becomes the monkfish’s “dinner”.
In addition, such a net keeps the animal itself afloat. If not for this device, the weight of the shell would have pulled the mollusk to the bottom. Do you know at what speed the animal will fly down in this case? As much as 25 km/h! At that speed, an adult is riding a bicycle fast! The wings also help the mollusk stay at a certain depth. By adding or decreasing the frequency of strokes, Limacina regulates immersion.
When darkness falls, the monkfish rises closer to the surface of the ocean. The animal does this in order to feed on plankton, which gathers in large flocks in the upper layers of water at night. But the rest of the time his life passes at a depth of no more than 100 meters.
If the limacina senses danger, it suddenly falls like a stone to the bottom. But she is not always able to escape the pursuit of a predator, and she becomes someone’s “dinner dish.”
What does Limacina eat?
Having weaved their underwater nets, monkfish wait until they collect food: larvae, small crustaceans, plankton, bacteria.
How do monkfish reproduce?
And this is a sea angel - an eater of monkfish. This process has been poorly studied by researchers of the ocean depths. It is only known that limacines lay egg clutches numbering hundreds of eggs. The eggs are connected to each other by a jelly-like substance and form a kind of plate.
I often get confused about the names of shell seafood (or scientifically bivalves and gastropods). Therefore, I have collected a small selection of interesting information, pictures and descriptions of the most popular (delicious) subspecies.
These mollusks live in both salt and fresh water, lead a sedentary lifestyle, attached to solid objects or... their relatives. This is exactly how fishermen caught them in ancient times: a wooden pole was lowered into the water and after a little over a year, its lower part was all “hung” with mussels. With the help of a leg or shell, some species are able to move quickly. Mollusks mainly feed on unicellular algae, tiny plankton and other organic particles contained in the water. Sea water enters the gills through the slightly open valves and passes through the mollusks, as if through a filter. Food is transported into the body and mineral particles are removed. Thus, mollusks are active water filters: one individual pumps up to 3 liters of water per hour through itself. They prefer to live in running water because using sea currents, mollusks can feed without much effort - passing the required amount of water through the gills. Due to these characteristics of the body, they live only in fairly clean water.
The shell of mollusks has two valves, which are controlled by opening muscles and, if necessary, are able to fit tightly against each other. This allows the soft-bodied animal to reliably isolate itself from the environment. The inner surface of the shells is lined with a layer of mother-of-pearl, and the body of the mollusk is covered with a fleshy film - the mantle. Often there may be grains of sand in the sink: you should wash them well with running water, or even better, soak them in salt water for an hour or two before cooking (or wait until the grains of sand turn into pearls)! Some types of shellfish are eaten raw, while others are stewed, fried or boiled. Do not forget, it is very important to eat only fresh shellfish: the shells of mussels and bettas must either be tightly closed (except for scallops, which are sold with open shells) or closed from touch (for oysters). I recommend not eating those shells that did not open during heat treatment.
Mussels / mussels / cozze.
Mussels differ in size (from 5 to 20 cm), shell color (from blue-black to golden brown), life expectancy (from 5 to 30 years) and the taste of the meat. It is believed that warm-water mussels have more tender and softer meat, while those found in cold water have rougher meat. In terms of protein content, mussel meat is superior to beef and fish. The mussels caught from June to February have the highest taste.
All the insides of the shell are edible (except for the leg), they are very tasty stewed in white sauce (from butter, parsley, garlic and white wine) or in red sauce (from tomatoes, the same garlic and white wine, finely sautéed shallots, oregano , thyme and hot red pepper).
There is a special subspecies of mussels bearded horse mussel / cozza pelosa, the Russian name for which I did not find. Italians especially love and appreciate them.
On the Mediterranean coast there is the French village of Bousing. It is considered the capital of mussels - there they can be found in any cafe, where they are cooked along with grilled sausages and served with local wines. However, glorious traditions of eating mussels exist not only in France. For example, in Odessa, this product was sometimes prepared right on the beach - on a sheet of iron fixed over a fire.
Just like the scallop, the muscle and mantle of the mussel are eaten. This mollusk passes a huge amount of water through its body, acting as a kind of filter. Therefore, they are prepared like this: they wash and sort out the shells, and keep them in cold water for several hours. Then I wash it again and cook in salted water for 15-20 minutes. After this, the shells should be opened and the meat should be removed from them, rinsing again in boiled water. After this, you can prepare salads, cold and hot appetizers, and soups from mussels.
Of course, mussels are very healthy. Their meat contains more than 30 useful microelements, as well as B vitamins: B1, B2, B6, vitamin D and PP.
Oysters / oysters / ostriche.
Because of their tasty and healthy meat, oysters have been eaten for many hundreds of years. It was always believed that oyster supplies were inexhaustible, but as a result of uncontrolled fishing in the mid-nineteenth century, the question arose of the need to regulate their collection and introduce artificial breeding. There is a legend that the oyster season lasts only in those months that have the letter “r” in their names (i.e. from September to April) due to the fact that, firstly, in the summer months wild oysters reproduce and secondly, due to the difficulties of their storage and transportation during the warm season. However, now 95% of consumed oysters are grown on farms, and modern methods of their cultivation allow them to be consumed all year round. I would never have thought that the United States is the world's largest producer of oysters; Americans eat as many as 2.5 billion oysters a year. The oyster growing period lasts from three to four years, during which time the mollusk grows from 5 to 15 centimeters in size; although individuals of some species reach as much as 45 centimeters.
In nature, there are 2 genera of oysters: European (Ostrea or flat) and Pacific (Crassostrea or deep). European oysters are usually named after the area where they were grown: belons, gravettes, olerons, etc. Pacific - according to cultivation technology: fine de claire, speciales de claire. Those oysters that live in cooler waters are tastier, and their meat is more tender and juicy. For flat oysters, size is indicated by zeros, the largest being four zeros. For deep oysters, size is indicated by numbers, with the largest size being number one. Traditionally, oysters are sold by the dozen.
Oysters are usually eaten fresh, with a little pepper and sprinkled with lemon juice. It is better to order medium-sized oysters (they are more tender), and oysters that are too large do not always fit in your mouth :). There is a popular belief that a fresh oyster squeaks. So, if you are holding a fresh oyster in your hands and hear a squeak, then stop squeaking :). An oyster lunch is well complemented by rye bread croutons with butter, as well as a wine vinegar sauce. The traditional method of consumption is as follows: take the shell in the left hand, separate the body of the mollusk from the muscle located in the middle of the shell, add a little pepper and a couple of drops of lemon juice and drink the oyster from the recessed side of the shell. But they don’t swallow it right away, but enjoy its juice, lightly chewing the meat. Well, the best place in the world (IMHO) to eat this delicacy is the beaches of the French town of Cancale, where you can choose a couple of dozen of the freshest oysters at a small seafood market on the embankment. The seller will open them for you right away. And you can eat them by dangling your legs over the side of the embankment towards the ocean, carelessly throwing the flaps into the coastal sand (this is the custom!). In the same town you can visit the oyster museum and a farm that grows the most delicious, in my opinion, oysters on earth!
Scallops / scallops / capesante.
Scallops live in all the world's oceans and in many seas (even in the Black Sea they are found!). The bivalve shell of a mollusk is a symbol of the feminine water principle, which gives rise to all living things - it is the scallop shell that is depicted in Sandro Botticelli’s painting “The Birth of Venus”. The shell has a diameter of 15-20 cm, inside which is one of the main sea delicacies - scallop meat.
Scallop meat is tender and slightly sweet in taste. They can be eaten raw or used for cooking from salads to main courses. They are especially popular in French cuisine (my favorite Saint-Jacques dish is baked scallop in mushroom-cheese-cream-wine sauce with bread crumbs). Scallop fillet contains almost no fat and carbohydrates, but has a beneficial effect on male potency. Today, the scallop ranks third in quantity in the world production of shells, after oysters and mussels.
When you buy fresh scallops, inside the shell you will find creamy meat and sometimes a bright orange pouch of roe. Caviar has a slightly different consistency than scallop meat, but is no less tasty - cook it along with the meat. All other membranes and dark veins must be removed and not eaten. Scallop meat can also be sold frozen, but you need to be careful when buying it - scallops absorb water very well, which is often used by its sellers. Meat saturated with water becomes heavier - so weigh the scallop in your hand before buying; it should weigh less than an ice cube of the same size.
Scallops do not like long cooking - the simpler and faster it is cooked, the better. Fry it for 1-2 minutes on each side in a very hot frying pan lightly sprinkled with olive oil, and the scallop is ready. It is very convenient and beautiful to serve in its own sink.
This is the most common looking bivalve shell. Inside is a mollusk, the edible parts of which are the muscle and mantle. Moreover, people have been eating this mollusk since time immemorial - it was appreciated by the inhabitants of the coastal regions of the Far East, long before Europeans first mentioned this product in literature in 1704. Boil the scallop in salted water for about 7-10 minutes. After cooking, the product is cooled and cut. It can also be baked or fried. Scallops are suitable for preparing gourmet appetizers and first course salads.
Scallop meat contains complete proteins and active lipids. This seafood is a valuable source of minerals such as sodium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, copper, manganese, zinc, iodine and others. It also contains vitamins B1, B2, B6, B12. Scallops, like other seafood, are classified as “absolute taste” products that do not require spices or seasonings.
Sea cockerels (or simply mollusks) / clams / vongole.
The cockerels gave me the most trouble; the devil himself would break his head in the types and subspecies of these shells (there is not even an exact scientific definition of clams)! However, there are two main groups: soft-shelled and hard-shelled/fasolari, although soft does not mean that the shell is actually soft - it is simply thinner and more brittle than that of a hard clam.
Hard-shelled clams have a shiny shell, and the meat looks like a long tongue with a bright orange tip; it is from them that the delicious Manhattan clam chowder soup is made, which I would recommend you try at the oyster bar at New York's Grand Central Station. Usually shells have a round shape (with the exception of sea shells / razor clams / cannolicchio, which are rectangular-oblong and date shells / dattero di mare - round-oblong, but catching and eating the latter is prohibited) - see. illustrations above.
Soft-shelled clams come with longitudinal and transverse ribbing. And their most popular subspecies are amande, venus, and palourdes, which are considered the best - see. illustrations above.
When choosing shellfish, use the general rules - they should be very fresh, although they are rarely eaten alive. My favorite rooster dish is linguine alle vongole, which is also my favorite long Italian pasta.
Cardium/cockles
These shells are slightly smaller in size and have a more rounded shell than cockerels; are used in exactly the same way as their older brothers.
Periwinkle (left) / winkles / buccini di mare and trumpeter (right) / whelks / chiocciole di mare.
Periwinkle and whelk are coastal sea snails. The soft body of the mollusk is hidden in a beautiful spiral-twisted calcareous shell up to 20 cm long and closed with a “curtain”. Their delicious orange meat is ideally absorbed by the body and is a source of complete proteins and microelements - especially iodine and fluorine.
Small shellfish are prepared directly in their shells - left overnight in fresh water, and then boiled for 5-10 minutes in prepared salty broth with spices and herbs. Sometimes, after cooking, the snails are dipped in a vinegar solution. Snails are served hot or cold, often with lemon, olive oil and vinegar, and the meat is eaten with small needles, carefully removed from the shells. The meat is very juicy, a little rubbery, with a strong taste. The most delicious snails I ate were at the restaurant Astoux et Brun in Cannes, near the Palais des Festivals and the Sunday fish market, they are served to all visitors as an appetizer. And you can stop gnawing on them only when the main dishes are brought out.
Now about cephalopods. Cephalopods, don’t take this as an awkward pun, are eight-legged and ten-legged. The first are octopuses, decapods are squids and cuttlefish. Of all this glorious company, squid is the most accessible and popular. Let's start with them.
Squid
There are about 300 species of squid, which live mainly in tropical waters. The sizes of squid can be very different: from 2-5 cm and a weight of 300 grams for an ordinary squid, to 18 meters in length and a weight of a couple of tons for a giant squid (octopus). Unfortunately, such squid cannot be eaten.
All squids have a conical body called a mantle with diamond-shaped fins and 10 tentacles around the mouth opening. The mantle has an ink sac; the black liquid that is in it serves the squid for self-defense.
They eat the muscular mantle and tentacles of squid, which are a protein product: 80% of the dry matter in them is protein. Squid meat is also rich in vitamins and minerals. Squid suckers, dried in a frying pan, are considered a special delicacy.
Cutting a squid carcass is quite simple: the ligaments between the head and body are removed, after which the head is separated along with the entrails. The remaining whole hollow carcass can be stuffed; the eyes and jaws are removed from the head.
Stores usually sell squid fillets. In any case, before cooking, you need to remove the thin skin covering the meat. To do this, the squid is kept in hot water for several minutes, after which the skin is easily removed. Cook the cleaned meat for 2-3 minutes.
Squid dishes are common in Mediterranean cuisine: it is stuffed or deep-fried, cut into rings, and used in salads.
Octopuses
Hundreds of species of octopuses are known, and all of them have a body consisting of a sac-like body and a large head, on the front of which there are eight tentacles with suckers in two rows. Among the variety of species, there is also a giant octopus (Paractopus dofleini), whose body length reaches 60 cm and a total length of up to 3 meters. However, octopuses of more modest dimensions are eaten: the so-called “muscardini” weighing 40-100g. and larger specimens of 2-4 kg. Muscardini is cheaper and the cost increases in proportion to the weight.
Cephalopods are usually supplied to Russia by Spain, France, and Holland. But we also have our own fisheries: in the Far Eastern seas there are up to 14 species of octopuses weighing from 400 g to 12 kg. Octopus, like other seafood, is healthy; its meat has greater nutritional value than squid. A high-quality product is not wrinkled and elastic when pressed.
Octopus is used in cooking both boiled and raw, sometimes the skin is also used. However, the most common option is boiled octopus.
Octopus is a popular dish on the Mediterranean coast. It is marinated, baked in breadcrumbs, and served fried with a vinegar and butter sauce.
Cuttlefish
The cuttlefish has a more flattened body than squids, surrounded by an oval mantle with narrow fins on the sides, four pairs of limbs and one pair of tentacles with suckers. Cuttlefish, which is less common on store shelves and on restaurant menus, is often prepared using the same recipes as squid or octopus. In the Mediterranean, the boiled product, served as a salad in a spicy olive oil marinade, is especially popular. Small cuttlefish, prized for their subtle nutty flavor, are often deep-fried. There are two sizes of cuttlefish most in demand in cooking. Small (from 20 g) - for preparing appetizers, salads, kebabs. And larger ones - weighing 300-600 g, used in main dishes. A larger product is rarely used: the meat of a large cuttlefish is considered coarser. In general, cuttlefish are an interesting and unusual creature: they are capable of changing the color and structure of their skin in a matter of seconds. Their ink is still used to make paint that has a pure brown color - sepia (from sepia - the scientific name for cuttlefish). By the way, cuttlefish ink is also used in cooking: most often for preparing Italian dishes - pasta, risotto, as well as some sauces.
Sea snails
There are several varieties sold in Philippine markets. It is difficult for a European to understand the subtle differences between them. Sometimes sellers specially cut off the ends of the shells to make it easier to pull the snails out. If you bought already crushed shells, then know that you need to cook them as soon as possible.
If you decide to buy whole shells, don't worry, I'll tell you how to get the edible part yourself. You just need to cook them, and then the snail body can be easily removed with a fork.
How to choose snails? Choose by smell. There is no smell, which means the shellfish are fresh and you can buy them. Sometimes they can be seen moving their legs in their shells.
How to cook snails? Can be boiled in coconut milk with garlic, onion and spices. All cooking takes no more than 5-7 minutes.
Tamilok - sea worm
And finally, the most exotic Filipino creature is the Tamil. The Filipinos themselves admit that they eat it occasionally. This is more of a tourist activity, for which locals travel to remote areas and collect worms. Tamilok is found in the trunks of rotting mangrove trees. Getting it is a real feat. You need to wander for a long time through fetid thickets in knee-deep or waist-deep water, looking for slimy and long mollusks. In Tamil markets it is sold in this form - in a special marinade that protects the worm from spoilage. Ingredients of the marinade: sugar, salt, vinegar and pepper.
After surfing the Internet, I was surprised to learn that Tamilok is not a worm, but a mollusk. Some compare its taste to oysters. Local residents eat it with alcohol.
As for me, Tamil is not intended for the European stomach. Taste of mud, slimy consistency, taste of vinegar... nothing special.
Guidak
Geoduck is a large edible gastropod weighing up to 1.5 kg of the Panopea generosa species, which is found off the west coast of the United States. The thin, fragile shell of this mollusk, up to 20 cm long, cannot completely cover the even longer protruding “neck” (neck), which we usually call the “leg” - this “leg” is three times larger than the shell.
The English name for this mollusk (geoduck, gweduck) appeared at the end of the 19th century, is derived from the name of these mollusks in the language of the Nisqual Indians (which is why it is pronounced “guiduck”) and means “deep-digging” - these mollusks really bury themselves quite deeply in the sand. The clam meat is quite tough and tastes like abalone, so Americans usually cut it into pieces, beat it and fry it in butter with onions.
However, the bulk of the catch is exported to Japan (where the guidaka is called “murugai”), Taiwan and Hong Kong, where they are often eaten raw (for example, in Japan they are scalded, the skin is pulled off, the entrails are removed, they are thinly cut and made into sashimi).
One of the most unusual inhabitants of the cold waters of the Arctic, subarctic Atlantic and Pacific oceans. White dots on the angel’s body are fat droplets, reserves for the hungry period. It was once believed that these mollusks inhabit both hemispheres, but it turned out that angelfish in Antarctica are a different species - Clione antarctica.
A miniature, only 3–5 centimeters in size, translucent creature is a graceful swimmer, which is a pleasure to watch. Slowly flapping their wings, the angels seem to soar in the air. Looking at this flight, it is impossible to assume that the angelfish is an evolved ancient snail, descended from a common ancestor with all sorts of snails and slugs, like those crawling in your garden. Angel embryos, like snails, even have a true spiral shell that falls off quite quickly in the early stages. Angel wings are a modified crawling leg, an excellent evolutionary solution that allowed pteropods to explore a completely new niche for them - the thickness of the ocean. The angel flaps its wings along the same trajectory as the butterflies, that is, in a figure eight. This complex type of movement demonstrates a high level of development of the nervous system. Swimming is controlled by the pedal ganglia, clusters of nerve cells that form something like the brain. This allows the angel to move quickly and masterfully in the water, which, in turn, contributes to effective hunting.
Yes, yes, despite its angelic appearance, it is a merciless predator, and a very selective one at that. The fact is that adult sea angels and their later larvae specialize in eating monkfish - shellfish pteropods Limacina helicina. Devils are close relatives of angels, tiny five-millimeter animals with fragile shells. If we describe them in one phrase, then these are swimming eared snails. Angels is well studied and is a spectacle worthy of science fiction horror films. Hidden in the head of the angels are six huge tentacle-hooks - buccal cones, dotted over the entire surface with small spines with a sticky secretion. As soon as the angel is in close proximity to potential food, its head opens into two halves, from which these same buccal cones turn out with lightning speed. The inversion and elongation of these tentacle-like structures occurs as follows. The angel creates muscle tension in the lower part of his body and literally collapses. Fluid from the space between the internal organs (hemocoel) is forced under pressure into the central cavities of the buccal cones, causing them to inflate.
Flexible tentacles grab the victim's shell and literally stick to its surface. To start eating the devil, the angel needs to turn the shell with the mouth towards his mouth. To do this, he loosens his grip for a split second, the devil, who does not believe his luck, tries to escape, but the angel catches him again and squeezes him, and so on until the shell is in the desired position. At this time, “cutlery” extends from the angel’s head - jaws formed by bunches of hard chitinous hook-shaped bristles. By inserting them directly into the shell, the predator hooks the soft tissues of the prey and scrapes the devil out entirely. In the mouth of the angel, like other mollusks, there is a radula - a special chitinous grater that turns even the hardest food into pulp, and simply grinds the soft devil into puree. It can take an angel from 2 to 45 minutes to eat one devil. As soon as the predator has swallowed its prey, it discards the empty shell and is ready to swim in search of a new victim. The most successful hunters spend no more than two minutes capturing the next devil.
It is rare, but it happens that angels are not able to remove food from the shell. This happens, for example, when a frightened devil very quickly hides in the farthest curl of the shell, and the predator does not reach it with its chitinous hooks. In such cases, a hungry angel is able to swim with a devil on his head for several hours. If there is not enough food nearby, another angel may try to take the hunter's fair-caught prey by grabbing the shell with buccal cones, or by pushing the opponent in the hope that he will release the devil himself. Battles end when the victim dies or is eaten by one of the competitors. In the rarest case, friendship wins, and the angels throw out the devil, numb with horror.
During a season, one angel can eat up to 500 devils. Such gluttony is determined by the need to store nutrients in the form of subcutaneous fat drops in order to survive without food for those few months when their only food, devils, disappears from the plankton. Unlike adults, early angel veliger larvae feed on phytoplankton. However, already 2-3 days after the veliger undergoes metamorphosis and turns into a polytrochous larva - such a small funny barrel 0.3-0.6 mm in size with several corollas of cilia - the angel begins to feed on monkfish larvae. And the larger the hunter becomes, the larger the prey he can afford. Peak reproduction of sea angels occurs in early spring, when planktonic algae are abundant in Arctic waters.