Author Archives: José Leal

The 2025 Live Mollusk Count

The 2025 Live Mollusk Count took place on Sanibel Island last January 12, achieving very good results. The number of participants, methods, and count area were comparable to Live Mollusk Counts done in the recent past. The Live Mollusk Counts have been organized by the National Shell Museum & Aquarium (under the leadership of Associate Director of Education Jorden Falker) in collaboration with the Sanibel-Captiva Shell Club (under the leadership of Debi McBroom.) A West Indies Fighting Conch at West Gulf Drive beach access #1, on Sanibel. Photo: Maria Gonzalez.

Wentletraps of Southwest Florida

Wentletraps (family Epitoniidae) are everlasting favorites here in Southwest Florida. Today I present a selection of species found on the beaches of Sanibel and Captiva islands: (1) Bladed Wentletrap (Epitonium albidum); (2) Dall’s Wentletrap (Cirsotrema dalli); (3) Angulate Wentletrap (Epitonium angulatum); (4) Humphrey’s Wentletrap (Epitonium humphreysii); (5) New England Wentletrap (Epitonium novangliae); (6) Matthews’s Wentletrap (Epitonium matthewsae); (7) Leal’s Wentletrap (Epitonium leali); (8) Brown-band Wentletrap (Gyroscala rupicola); (9) Tollin’s Wentletrap (Epitonium tollini). The individual photos are not at the same scale;…