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.

“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

Shell of the Week: The Stearns Dove Snail

At only 5 mm (0.2 in inch) in maximum size, Aesopus stearnsii Tryon, 1843, is one of the smallest members of the dove snail family Columbellidae found on the beaches of Southwest Florida. Its shell is relatively slender for the family, with the aperture (opening) spanning about 1/3 to ¼ of shell length. The shell sculpture shows very narrow, etched spiral lines. The color is cream color, usually with a faint orange-brown band just below the suture (the line separating two whorls). The photo show

Shell of the Week: The Tongue Auger

Terebra glossema Schwengel, 1942 is the rarest of the four local shallow-water species of the auger family Terebridae. It resembles the Eastern Auger, Terebra dislocata, but differs from that by fainter spiral lines crossing the axial (“vertical”) ribs, whorls with more convex profile, and less “stepped” whorls. The shell measures a little more than one inch (25 mm), and color patterns range from cream to light-brownish to orange-brown, sometimes with irregular bands. The Tongue Auger, Terebra g

What’s With That Protoconch?

This unidentified Acteocina "canoe bubble snail" is found on the shores of Fernando de Noronha, an oceanic archipelago located off the coast of northeastern Brazil. The 3.5 mm (about 0.14 inch) adult shell displays on its apex ("top" of the shell) the remnants of the larval shell, or protoconch. Members of the family Acteocinidae have unusual heterostrophic protoconchs, in which the direction of coiling during shell growth changes by about 90 degrees at the shift between larva to adult. The res

Upside-down Snails

Fat Dove Snails, Parvanachis obesa (C.B. Adams, 1845), are capable of "crawling upside down" under the water surface, or the air-water interface. They do that by taking advantage of the surface tension present (caused in turn by the cohesive forces among water molecules). Fat Dove Snails are very small, at about 0.5 mm (0.02 inch) in maximum size. The smaller the animals, the easier it will be for them to crawl along the air-water interface. The same is true for insects, spiders, and other air-

Little Shells, Little Boxes!

I recently found these little 1.5-inch boxes among old collection materials here at the Museum. The little cardboard containers in the photo, resembling miniature hat boxes, held shells donated to the Museum in the late 1990s by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History). During the process of establishing the Museum collection, our Founding Director Robert Tucker Abbott (who had been an Assistant Curator at the Smithsonian), negotiated the donation of a large number of d

Shell of the Week: The Two-band Eulima

Eulima bifasciata d’Orbigny, 1841 is a super-slender member of the family Eulimidae. Eulimids are snails that parasitize the external or internal parts of echinoderms such as sea cucumbers and sea urchins, basically sucking their blood for a living. Two-band Eulimas may reach 10 mm (a little less than 0.5 inch), have a very glossy shell with slightly convex whorl outlines, and a very pointed apex. Two golden-brown bands just below the suture (the groove separating two whorls) are characteristic

Shell of the Week: The Dwarf Surf Clam

Mulinia lateralis (Say, 1822) is a small white clam that may reach 18 mm (0.7 inch) in length. Surf clams belong to the family Mactridae, and one of the main features that distinguish them from other local bivalves is the presence of an internal ligament. The ligament is the brownish structure near the shell beak that, acting as a spring, helps keep the shell valves slightly ajar when the clam is relaxed. Dwarf Surf Clams have their beaks in a central position, and a ridge on the posterior regio

Colin Redfern, 1938-2019

It is with great sadness that I inform that great friend and collaborator Colin Redfern passed away this morning in a life-care facility in his hometown of Boca Raton, Florida. Born in Great Britain, Colin spent a big part of his life in Abaco, Bahamas. He was a classically trained professional pianist and productive citizen scientist who focused on collecting shells and mollusks in that Bahamian island, where he started to gather data and photographs for what eventually became the two editions