Editing Radula (section)

==Use==
[[File:Land_Snail_radula_tracks.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Tracks made by terrestrial gastropods with their radulas, scraping green algae from a surface inside a greenhouse]]
The radula is used in two main ways:  either as a rake, generally to comb up microscopic, filamentous algae from a surface; or as a rasp, to feed directly on a plant.<ref name="Steneck1982">{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1007/BF00409596 | last1 = Steneck | first1 = R. S. | last2 = Watling | first2 = L. | title = Feeding capabilities and limitation of herbivorous mollusks: A functional group approach | journal = Marine Biology | volume = 68 | issue = 3 | pages = 299–319 | year = 1982 | bibcode = 1982MarBi..68..299S | s2cid = 84207061 }}</ref>
The rhipidoglossan (see below) and, to a lesser extent, the taenigloissan radular types are suited to less strenuous modes of feeding, brushing up smaller algae or feeding on soft forms; mollusks with such radulae are rarely able to feed on leathery or coralline algae.  On the other hand, the docoglossan gastropod radula allows a very similar diet to the [[polyplacophora]], feeding primarily on these resistant algae, although microalgae are also consumed by species with these radular types.<ref name="Steneck1982"/>

The [[sacoglossa]]ns ([[sea slug]]s) form an interesting anomaly in that their radula comprises a single row; they feed by sucking on cell contents, rather than rasping at tissue, and most species feed on a single genus or species of alga. Here, the shape of the radular teeth has a close match with the food substrate on which they are used.  Triangular teeth are suited to diets of calcified algae, and are also present in radulae used to graze on ''[[Caulerpa]]''; in both these cases the cell walls are predominantly composed of [[xylan]]. [[Sabot (firearms)|Sabot]]-shaped teeth &ndash; rods with a groove along one side &ndash; are associated with diets of crossed-fibrillar cellulose-walled algae, such as the [[Siphonocladaceae]] and [[Cladophorales]], whereas blade-shaped teeth are more generalist.<ref name="Jensen1993">{{Cite journal | last1 = Jensen | first1 = K. R. | title = Morphological adaptations and plasticity of radular teeth of the Sacoglossa (= Ascoglossa) (Mollusca: Opisthobranchia) in relation to their food plants | doi = 10.1111/j.1095-8312.1993.tb00883.x | journal = Biological Journal of the Linnean Society | volume = 48 | issue = 2 | pages = 135–155 | year = 1993 }}</ref>