Snail for breakfast

  

Last month when we were doing field work near Carmel, out of the corner of my eye I noticed this scene where a Striped Dogwhelk (Nucella ostrina) appeared to be eating a Black Turban Snail (Tegula funebralis).

Dogwhelks are predators that drill holes in the shells of their prey to access the soft inner tissues.  It's common to see Striped Dogwhelks eating barnacles and mussels, but we don't often see them eating other snails.  

To be sure, we pried the dogwhelk away from the turban snail and found the evidence (below).  The blue arrow is pointing to a drill hole along the edge of the snail:

 

 

 

And here's an even closer view so that it's easier to see the drill hole itself:

 

 

 

Evidence!