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 Lilac Auger

Terebra vinosa Dall, 1889 is a small auger snail that may reach 20 mm (about 0.8 inch). One of the main features that separate this species from other local augers is the shape of the whorl profile: the whorl in side view is concave, and different specimens show different degrees of concavity. The shell sculpture consists of about 22 axial (“vertical”) ribs crossed by flat, indistinctive cords. The species name alludes to the wine shell color, although some individuals may have whitish, cream, l

Meet the Hairy Triton

The Hairy Triton, Monoplex pilearis (Linnaeus, 1758) is a relatively common tropical western Atlantic species that is present also in the tropical Indian and Pacific oceans, including Polynesia and Hawaii. The long-lasting pelagic (open-water) larvae in this species allow for ocean crossing at the larval stage, one of the reasons for its broad geographical distribution. Museum collaborator and outstanding underwater photographer Anne DuPont captured this image off Pompano Beach in Florida. Her

Flirting with Danger?

In this photo, taken at one of the Museum's Live Tanks, an inch-long Tampa Bay Top Snail (Calliostoma tampaense) is seen hitching a ride on the operculum (or "trapdoor") of a large Horse Conch (Triplofusus giganteus). Horse Conchs are active predators, feeding mostly on other large mollusks. The Horse Conch in this photo, however, is probably well-fed and satiated, so that the top snail can safely enjoy the rest of the ride without becoming the conch's mid-afternoon snack! Read more about loca

Shell of the Week: The Sculptured Top Snail

Calliostoma euglyptum (A. Adams, 1855) is one of the locally rarer species of the family top snail family Calliostomatidae. Commonly reaching about 18 mm (about ¾ inch), the species has characteristic, slightly rounded whorl sides, and a base without a well-defined, deep umbilicus, the orifice present on the center of the base of other species of the family. The color is dull-rose or orangish-brown, with faint streaks of lighter color. The Sculptured Top Snail, Calliostoma euglyptum. Photo by J

Shell of the Week: The Prea Sea Slug

The Prea Sea Slug, Sclerodoris prea (Ev. Marcus & Er. Marcus, 1967) is a nudibranch gastropod mollusk that measures about 40 mm (about 1.5 inch). Nudibranchs are shell-less sea slugs that bear their respiratory organs, the “gills”, externally (the term Nudibranchia is a combination of the Latin word for naked, nudus, and the Greek word for gills, branchia.) Although I don’t know this for a fact, it is very likely that zoologists Eveline and Ernest Marcus named the species after another animal, t

Chiton Poop!

A couple of weeks ago I photographed a live Striate Glass-hair Chiton, Acanthochitona pygmaea. (Chitons are usually elliptical mollusks with eight shelly plates.) The chiton was brought to the Museum by Lorin Buckner, who found it near the Sanibel Causeway. After downloading the images from my camera to the computer, I discovered that the 12 mm-long (about 0.5 inch) mollusk had small fecal pellets (arrow in photo) near its posterior end (left end of the image). Fecal pellets are agglutinated le

Shell of the Week: The Plicate Mangelia

At 6 mm in length, Pyrgocythara plicosa (C.B. Adams, 1850) is one of the local small-sized gastropods. The shell is elongate-fusiform, with the spire (coiled part minus last whorl) measuring about half shell length. The sculpture consists of 11­−12 strong axial ribs crossed by about 5−6 spiral cords. The aperture has a strong indentation on the internal side of outer lip, and shell color is light-brown to reddish-brown, with bluish-white remnants of a periostracum. The Plicate Mangelia, Pyrgocyt

Digital Imaging Project Launched

Last week the Museum hired photographers and computer graphics professionals James Kelly and Damon May, launching the core phase of its Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)-sponsored Digital Imaging Project. James and Damon started photographing materials from our collection for online posting, as part of an endeavor that will make available about 9,200 collection lots (holdings) to researchers, aficionado(a)s, citizen scientists, students, and anyone interested in examining the imag

“Blue” Cloudy Periwinkles

The Cloudy Periwinkle, Littoraria nebulosa (Lamarck, 1822), is found along the coast of Southwest Florida and most of the tropical western Atlantic. They live high above the high tide line, mostly on dead tree trunks and branches, where they graze on microalgae and fungi. Periwinkles are marine gastropods that became almost completely independent of the aquatic environment. I took this photo at Cayo Costa State Park, two islands north of Captiva Island. The image shows unusually bluish-colored

A Cool Sea Slug

Nudibranchs are shell-less sea slugs that usually bear their gills conspicuously on the back side of their bodies. In addition, they more often than not rely on chemical substances rather than on a shell for overall protection. The sea slug Polycera hummi Abbott, 1952 (photo) may reach about 20 mm (a little less than an inch) in size, and may be found from North Carolina through Florida and the Gulf. That colorful species was named in 1952 by Shell Museum's Founding Director Robert Tucker Abbot