Japanese Oyster Drill (Ceratostoma inornatum)

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   The Japanese oyster drill, a small snail about an inch long, was imported accidentally from Japan with shipments of Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas) early in the 1900's. These marine snails drill small holes through the shell of young oysters with their radula (a ribbon-like band of teeth), to eat the oyster. Japanese oyster drills do not migrate by themselves, and it is, therefore, possible to control their spread by a quarantine system designed to prevent them from being taken onto drill-free tidelands.