Author Archives: José H. Leal

Speckled Crab and the Seven Olives

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is an amazing picture worth? A million? Consider, for instance, this terrific photo of seven Lettered Olives, Americoliva sayana (Ravenel, 1834), feeding on the remains of a Speckled Swimming Crab, Arenaeus cribrarius (Lamarck, 1818). The capture leaves no room for doubt as to what was happening: It reminds me of a “clean-up crew” of vultures around roadkill, or hyenas feasting on an antelope carcass. Lettered Olives are known to prey on wor

Shell of the Week: The Keeled-base Vitrinella

Teinostoma carinicallus Pilsbry & McGinty, 1946 is one the most distinctive among the local species of vitrinellas (family Tornidae). Its shell, which rarely reaches 3 mm (0.12 inch) in diameter, is delicate, smooth, with a low spire. The last whorl is flat, but the shell periphery is rounded. A concave callus (the plug-like structure on the shell base) completely closes the shell umbilicus. The most distinctive feature in the shell of this species is the presence of a narrow keel bordering the

Cone Snail Ballistics

In addition to producing some of the most potent venoms in nature, cone snails are now known to deliver one of the fastest predatory strikes in the animal kingdom. In a paper recently published online in Current Biology, Joseph R. Schulz from the Occidental College in Los Angeles and his collaborators have shown that the strike by the radular tooth of the fish-hunting Cat Cone, Conus catus, reaches speeds comparable to those of a bullet being fired from a pistol. The entire strike happens in les

Shell of the Week: The Horse Conch

Triplofusus giganteus (Kiener, 1840), one of the most iconic local marine snails, is well know for its very large size. It grows to about 60 cm (24 inches) in length, and is the second largest gastropod in the world, second only to the Australian Trumpet, Syrinx aruanus (Linnaeus, 1758), which reaches 910 mm (36 inches). We are all familiar with the large Horse Conch shells, but very few know how a young Horse Conch shell looks like. In the illustration, I included a 12 mm (about 0.5 inch) young

The Amazing Excalibur Snail

When describing newly discovered species, researchers may choose to name them after people or places, features of the animal (or shell), or to select a term that is reminiscent of a shape or an object, among other alternatives. Gyraxis excalibur is an unusually shaped land snail cleverly named after the sword of King Arthur. The small (reaching only 17 mm, or about 0.7 inch) but very elongate species was first described by G. Thomas (“Tom”) Watters from the Museum of Biological Diversity, Ohio S

Bittersweet Eyes

The Comb Bittersweet, Tucetona pectinata (Gmelin, 1791), is found along the coast of Southwest Florida. Bittersweet clams have numerous, simple eyes that resemble the ommatidia, or the individual units, of insect eyes. They can be seen as tiny dark dots along the mantle edges of the Comb Bittersweet in the photo. Studies on the eyes of bittersweet bivalves (family Glycymeridae) suggest that they can be used to sense approaching predators by sudden changes in light intensity (the “shadow reflex”)

Shell of the Week: The Florida Vitrinella

Vitrinella floridana Pilsbry & McGinty, 1946 is a very small species of the family Tornidae, that barely reaches 2 mm (about 0.8 inch) in diameter. The shell is smooth, totaling only about 3.5 whorls, with an open umbilicus, and the callus is absent. The shell is compressed, with the apex projecting only slightly, the whorl profile rounded, and the aperture oblique. The shell color in the Florida Vitrinella is translucent-white. The shell illustrated was collected in 2002 by Lois Dunnam at Gulf

World Congress of Malacology 2019

WCM 2019 took place in Pacific Grove, California, from August 11­–16. The event was a great success, with a large number of presentations spanning four concurrent sessions in four days, and one day for field trips. I represented the Museum, presenting a poster co-authored with Digital Imaging Specialists James Kelly and Patricia Starkey. The poster summarizes the work being done at the Museum under our Digital Imaging Project. Click here to read more and enjoy the poster.

Zombie Snails!

In the past few days, the online media has been abuzz with a renewed appreciation for the strange parasitism of the worm known as Green-banded Broodsac (Leucochloridium paradoxum) on European Amber Snails (genus Succinea). Green-banded Broodsacs invade eyestalks (also known as tentacles) of snails after growing inside the victims’ bodies. Often, both eyestalks become occupied. Once inside the eyestalk, a worm starts a “dance,” pulsating back and forth. The worms' motion and color pattern make it

Shell of the Week – The Hidden-spire Vitrinella

This species is actually the Hidden-spire Vitrinella, Teinostoma cryptospira (A.E. Verrrill, 1884), not the Trifle Vitrinella, Teinostoma lerema, as identified in the original posting. At 2 mm (0.08 inch) maximum size, the Hidden-spire Vitrinella is one of the smallest members of the family Tornidae in Florida. The suture (line where two successive whorls join) in this species is not very visible, not forming a distinct line on the shell surface. The shell surface is smooth, the aperture round