CAT'S EYE

(Lunella smaragda).

This is the best known of all our shellfish of the inter-tidal rocks. It feeds on seaweeds and lives in the mid-tidal belt of the grape seaweed, Hormosira. It grows to over 2 in. in diameter, and the circular greenish operculum, the cat's eye, which closes the aperture, is its most conspicuous feature. The Maori name is ataata.

by Arthur William Baden Powell, Assistant Director, Auckland Institute and Museum.

• CAT'S EYE

Warning

This information was published in 1966 in An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock. It has not been corrected and will not be updated.

Up-to-date information can be found elsewhere in Te Ara.