- murex
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1. any marine gastropod of the genus Murex, common in tropical seas, certain species of which yield the royal purple dye valued by the ancients.2. a shell used as a trumpet, as in representations of Tritons in art.3. purplish red.[1580-90; < NL, L murex the shellfish that yielded Tyrian purple dye]
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▪ mollusk familyany of the marine snails constituting the family Muricidae (subclass Prosobranchia of the class Gastropoda). Typically the elongated or heavy shell is elaborately spined or frilled. The family occurs throughout the world but mainly in the tropics. The many muricids that live in rocky shallows are called rock shells, or rock whelks.The animal feeds by drilling a hole through the shell of bivalves or other shelled animals and inserting its long proboscis to ingest the prey. Most species exude a yellow fluid that, when exposed to sunlight, becomes a purple dye. The dye murex (Murex brandaris) of the Mediterranean was once a source of royal Tyrian purple. Another member of this important genus is the 15-centimetre (6-inch) Venus comb (M. pecten), a white, long-spined species of the Indo-Pacific region. Other members of the Muricidae include small, modestly ornamented shells given various names. The oyster drill (Urosalpinx cinerea) and dwarf tritons (genus Ocenebra) are pests in oyster beds. Drupes (Drupa, Acanthina) are colourful Indo-Pacific shells. Dogwinkles or dog whelks (Nucella) resemble periwinkles and feed on mussels and barnacles.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
