limpet

{The name ‘limpet’ is used for a large group of snails-like animals that live in salt water and fresh water with a single shell.}

{But the following text is about salt water molluscs (animals such as clams, mussels, snails, etc.}

a kind of animal – single conical-shelled mollusc – related to clams and snails – (most of the time only the hard outer cover, the shell, is visible, but not the soft body within the shell)

soft body with a big foot-like disc-shaped organ and a strong suction cup, no eyes, the head and the mouth parts are tucked inside, a ribbon or file-like tongue with rows of teeth in the mouth part; size: (shell) from less than 1 inch to 3 inches long, weight: 14-40 (?) grams; feeds on (eats) the algae that grows on rocks on the shores; lives for about 20 years; about 44 (?) species (kinds) found in the rocky coasts of all oceans world-wide

Some common limpets are: rough limpet, shield limpet, ribbed limpet, owl limpet, plate limpet, kelp limpet, dunce cap limpet, keyhole limpet, slipper limpet, pearl limpet, goat’s eye limpet

Special Features:

Limpets are famous for their ability to clamp themselves or cling to the rocks; they attach themselves to the rocks so tightly that it is not easy to dislodge them.  The more we or the other predators (= the animals that kill and eat them) try to pluck them the more tightly the stick to their places!

Limpets are eaten by people in some parts of the world!

Limpets eat only at night, rasping (scraping) the algae off the rocks with their file-like tongue; and though they are blind creatures they can find their way back to the same rock they usually cling to!

{Experts believe that the mucus they use to attach themselves to the rocks has some chemicals that guide them back to their home rock!!

Figures of Speech:

1.

limpet (noun)  =

(a)  a person who stays close (or clings) to another though the other person does not like or approve of it

(b)  an employee or a politician in a government office who is not wanted or needed but refuses to leave that position

(c)  (also ‘limpet bomb’ or ‘limpet mine’) a kind of bomb or explosive that is designed to attach itself to the bottom of a ship by magnetism, and explodes (blasts) on signal

2.

(a)  to cling like a limpet

(b)  to hang on or hold on like a limpet = to stick to something (an idea, a policy, etc.) or someone very tightly

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