Curator’s Corner

Museum, research, and collection updates from Dr. José H. Leal, plus Shell of the Week, which highlights a different species every other Friday. Most Shells of the Week are found in Southwest Florida.

Dr. José H. Leal serves as the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium’s Science Director and Curator. He received his Ph.D. in Marine Biology and Fisheries from the University of Miami and has served at the Museum since 1996.

Shell of the Week: The Hawk-wing Conch

Lobatus raninus (Gmelin, 1791), resembles its relative, the Milk Conch, but the shell is smaller (reaching about 120 mm, or 4.7 inches), and the flared outer lip of adults rarely surpasses the spire apex (the “tip” of the shell). The species is one of many in the Strombidae (the family of true conchs) known to display dwarfism. Dwarf forms show all the features of mature individuals such as thickened and flared outer lip, but at a much smaller size than expected for that species. At least one dw

Shell of the Week: The Glory of the Seas Venus

Callpita eucymata (Dall, 1890), is a member of the venus clam family Veneridae. The species reaches 27 mm in size, and its outer surface is sculptured with about 50 flattened commarginal (“concentric”) ribs. The color pattern has reddish-brown blotches that resemble tents, or “mountain ranges”, set against a cream-white background. The species has a broad distribution in the western Atlantic, living from the coast of New Jersey through northern Brazil, and also present in deeper water in the Gul

Blackwater Moments

Beginning today, December 10, 2021, the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum will be offering a new exhibition titled Blackwater Moments: Nocturnal Photography of Open-Ocean Mollusks. The exhibition will be on view through May 30, 2022 on the second floor of the Museum during regular Museum hours.“In the open ocean at night, many animals move up from deeper water to feed,” said José H. Leal, Ph.D., Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum Science Director and Curator, who organized the exhibition.

An Eye-catching Conch

The large gastropods from the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico traditionally played major roles in Meso American and Mexican cultures. This shell of a Queen Conch, Aliger gigas, is a replica of similarly decorated shells from ancient cultural areas around Mexico City. The shell is covered with a mosaic of obsidian, lapis-lazuli, and other stones, and its apex, or shell tip, has been sawed off, so the shell could be used as a "trumpet" or "horn". Photographed in Teotihuacan, Mexico, in 2014.

Shell of the Week: The Brown Moon Snail

Polinices hepaticus (Röding, 1798), is a member of the Naticidae (the family of moon snails) that has a broad distribution in the tropical western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. The species is not found along the coast of Southwest Florida, though. It reaches 55 mm (about 2.2 inches) in size, with brown shell color and white on the area of the aperture (around the opening). Like Shark Eyes in the genus Neverita, the Brown Moon Snail has a brown, horn-like operculum, in contrast to moon snails in t

A Very Special Sea Slug!

A sea slug that lives in open water, looks like a fish, and glows in the dark? That is Phylliroe bucephala, a transparent, three inches-long nudibranch mollusk that can be found swimming in the upper layers of the open ocean throughout the world’s tropical and subtropical ocean regions. This image, by black-water diver and photographer Linda Ianiello of West Palm Beach, Florida, shows the sea slug feeding on a jellyfish, possibly a Aequorea species. A few amphipod crustaceans can be seen within

Shell of the Week: The Florida Auger

Reaching 68 mm (about 2.7 inches) in size, Terebra floridana (Dall, 1889) is one of the largest species of auger snails in the western Atlantic. Augers are usually found in the sand close to the water edge, in medium- to coarse-sand habitats, where they feed on marine worms, but the Florida Auger is found in deeper water off both coasts of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. Augers are closely related to cone snails and, like them, use their radula teeth, which are like tiny harpoons, to inject veno

Shell of the Week: The Bladed Wentletrap

Reaching 18 mm (about 0.7 inches) in size, Epitonium albidum (d’Orbigny, 1842) has a thin, light shell with a sculpture of 10–14 sharp, delicate, blade-like ribs (known as “costae”). Unlike other local wentletrap species, the ribs on the Bladed Wentletrap bear no hooks or projections. The ribs on successive whorls are aligned, forming slanted “rows.” The shell in the image is from the Bahamas, but the species is also found on Sanibel and other parts of Florida, including the Florida Keys. A larg

Shell of the Week: The Flame Cone

The Flame Cone, Conasprella delessertii Récluz, 1843 is found from North Carolina south to both sides of Florida and in the Gulf of Mexico to the Yucatan Peninsula. The species is known also as Delessert’s Cone or Sozon’s Cone. Alan Kohn, in his book on cone snails from the southeastern U.S. and Caribbean, observed that the species “ranges as far north on the Atlantic coast of the United States as any other Conus species.” It reaches 100 mm (about 4 inches), and the color pattern consists of thr

The Fearless Slipper Snail

Is that Spotted Slipper Snail safe piggybacking on the operculum of a young Horse Conch? When feeding, the conch extends out of its shell. Consequently, the operculum will be on the opposite end of the head (and mouth), as that hard structure is permanently attached onto the rear part of the foot. So, in spite of the alluring “smells” emanating from the slipper snail, it’d be virtually impossible for the conch to reach back and eat it, as long as the latter remains attached. And, in that sweet s