sausage jellies & sand collars

It is early November and summer is on the way in southern Australia. One of the common sights on our beaches at this time often confuses people. I’m talking about the sausage-shaped masses of jelly that wash ashore.

Rather than being stranded sea jellies (some people still call them jelly fish) these are egg masses laid by predatory snails that live in the sand.Other sand snails lay thin, leathery egg masses that look like a collar made of sand.

The sausage jellies are produced by either the Conical Sand Snail Polinices conicus or the Sordid Sand Snail Polinices sordidus while sand collars are produced by either the Common Sand Snail Polinices didymus or the Zoned Sand Snail Sinum zonale.

sausage jellies
contain the eggs of snails
that live in the sand
(click thumbnail for full image)

sand collars
also contain the eggs of
snails that live in the sand
(click thumbnail for full image)

In reading through reference books I found that another sand snail, namely Ince’s Sand Snail Polinices incei, produces egg masses that are half way between sausage jellies and sand collars. In other words, this sand snail lays eggs in a collar shaped mass of jelly. This is one that I will now search for, so stay tuned – I’ll put up photographs of this egg mass and all of the sand snails described above.

If you don’t believe me about the egg thing, take a close look at either a sausage jelly or a sand collar (a hand lens is almost essential for beachcombing). .