Edit page | Page history | Printable version

Limpet

(Science: zoology)

1. In a general sense, any hatshaped, or conical, gastropod shell.

2. Any one of many species of marine shellfish of the order docoglossa, mostly found adhering to rocks, between tides.

The common European limpets of the genus Patella (especially. P. Vulgata) are extensively used as food. The common new England species is Acmaea testudinalis. Numerous species of limpets occur on the Pacific coast of America, some of them of large size.

3. Any species of Siphonaria, a genus of limpet-shaped pulmonifera, living between tides, on rocks.

4. A keyhole limpet. See fissurella.

Origin: Prob. Through french fr. L. Lepas, -adis, gr.