shelled snails text index | photo index
Phylum Mollusca > Class Gastropoda
Frog snail
Bufonaria sp.
Family Bursidae
updated Oct 10
Where seen? Although the shells are often seen (usually occupied by hermit crabs), living snails are rarely seen. Usually at the lowest tides near seagrass meadows on our Northern and Eastern shores. Apparently, the name is due to the warty texture of the shell.

Features: 4-6cm. The thick shell is conical with many regular bumps and blunt spines. There is a short tubular tip on the shell for the siphon. The operculum is of a horn-like material and is thin and flexible. It has a long muscular foot.


The Common frog snail (Bufonaria rana) is about 7.5cm long and found on mud or muddy-sand bottoms.

What does it eat? Some species appear appear to feed on tube worms. These have an extendible proboscis and large salivary glands, that are probably used to anaesthetize the worms in their tubes; the worms are then sucked out and swallowed whole.

East Coast, Nov 08

Muscular foot with operculum.

Tentacles and siphon.

Frog snails on Singapore shores

Changi, Jul 08

Short siphonal canal.

Long muscular foot.


Changi, May 09


East Coast, May 09


East Coast, Jul 09
Photo shared by Loh Kok Sheng on his blog.

Family Bursidae recorded for Singapore
from Tan Siong Kiat and Henrietta P. M. Woo, 2010 Preliminary Checklist of The Molluscs of Singapore.

  Family Bursidae
  Bufonaria perelegans
Bufonaria rana=Bursa rana

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