Naticids and muricids are the main drilling gastropod families that leave a characteristic hole in their shelled prey. Drilling predation can be evaluated along spatial scales, and different latitudinal patterns (equatorward, poleward, mid-latitude peaks or no trend at all) have already been described. For Argentine Patagonia, most studies have analysed muricid predation, but scant information is available on naticid predation. This study provides evidence of predation by the moon snailNotocochlis isabelleanaon a thin and fragile burrowing bivalve,Darina solenoides, along the intertidal sandflats at Pozo Salado, San Matías Gulf, in northern Patagonia. To estimate the incidence of predation, articulated specimens ofDarina solenoides(N = 432) were randomly collected in the intertidal zone. Drill holes (N = 94) were recorded in shell lengths ranging between 10 and 35 mm. Taking into account previous studies in the region, the intensity of mortality by drilling (22%) constitutes a higher value than expected for this latitude. These results may help explain local patterns in a particular site in northern Patagonia which has been previously identified as an outlier, but further studies aimed at evaluating macrogeographic patterns are necessary for a better understanding of the regional factors that might be governing these predator–prey interactions.

中文翻译：

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大西洋西南部巴塔哥尼亚北部潮滩的水族钻井捕食

Naticids 和 muricids 是主要的钻孔腹足类动物，它们在带壳的猎物上留下一个特征孔。钻井捕食可以沿空间尺度进行评估，并且已经描述了不同的纬度模式（赤道、极地、中纬度峰值或根本没有趋势）。对于阿根廷巴塔哥尼亚，大多数研究都分析了muricid 捕食，但关于naticid 捕食的信息很少。这项研究提供了月球蜗牛捕食的证据荸荠在薄而脆弱的穴居双壳贝类上，Darina 螺线管，沿着巴塔哥尼亚北部圣马蒂亚斯湾波佐萨拉多的潮间带沙滩。为了估计捕食的发生率，关节标本Darina 螺线管（N = 432）在潮间带随机收集。钻孔 (N = 94) 记录在 10 和 35 毫米之间的外壳长度范围内。考虑到该地区以前的研究，钻井造成的死亡率强度（22%）比该纬度的预期值高。这些结果可能有助于解释巴塔哥尼亚北部特定地点的局部模式，该地点先前已被确定为异常值，但有必要进行旨在评估宏观地理模式的进一步研究，以更好地了解可能控制这些捕食者 - 猎物相互作用的区域因素.