Shell of the Week: The False Angel Wing
Hello! A member of the Venus clam family Veneridae, Petricolaria pholadiformis gets its name from a superficial similarity with the...
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.
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;…
Fossil Cone Shells and UV Light
Last September 13 I discussed how ultraviolet light (UV, aka “black light”) reveals structurally distinctive shell parts, using as an...
Mussels of Southwest Florida
This is a sampling of the local species of the family Mytilidae, which are almost always neglected in private shell collections. (1)...
Shell of the Week: The Smith’s Nutmeg
Axelella smithii reaches 17 mm (about 0.7 inches). The shell is relatively thick and the shell sculpture includes about 8–10 raised...
Shell of the Week: The Chalcedony Phos
Antillophos chalcedonius is a relatively small (reaching 17 mm, or about 0.67 inch) gastropod, that displays a shell sculpture of strong spiral (“revolving”) threads and well-spaced axial (“vertical”) ridges. The color pattern shows variations of a white background and brownish patches that are more-or-less aligned with the axial ridges. The species is found throughout the eastern Gulf of Mexico, Florida Keys, Bahamas, and the Caribbean Basin southward to Colombia. Antillophos chalcedonius was d
The Local Muricidae
This is the first of a series depicting some of the most biodiverse families of marine mollusks from Sanibel and Captiva islands. Here are ten relatively common shallow-water species of drills and murex snails in the family Muricidae. (More species are present in deeper water offshore.) Click on the species name to see their entries in our Southwest Florida Shells guide. They are: (1) Cabrit’s Murex (Vokesimurex cabritii); (2) Pitted Murex (Favartia cellulosa); (3) Mauve-Mouth Drill (Calotrophon
Shell of the Week: The Intricate Phos
Bailya intricata is a small but attractive gastropod that reaches only 18 mm (about 0.7 inch). Its shell sculpture presents 14–36 axial (“vertical”) ribs crossed by spiral lines, with beads forming at the intersections. The shell color is an even cream-yellowish- to light-brown. The species is found off Florida, Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. This species may be difficult to distinguish from the Small Phos (Bailya parva), a species with similar geographic distribution; this latter, howev
Wedding Shells and Wannabe Junonias
Gastropod species of the genus Babylonia, the babylon snails, are common in the southwest Pacific and parts of the Indian Ocean. They are predatory snails with shells measuring between one to two inches in size, and marked by large, well-defined brown spots. Some of the species are popular in the marine aquarium trade in many parts of the world.They are also a food staple in parts of Southeast Asia. Most likely following from their use as food, their shells are sold by the bushel in the Internet
Shell of the Week: The Caribbean Piddock-clam
Pholadomya candida is a very rare bivalve that is more closely related to fossil species than to most living clams. Shells of the species have been collected in a few localities of the Caribbean Sea. The species was first reported alive in the 1800s, then only again in the early 2000s when it was found off the coast of Colombia and communicated in The Nautilus by Juan Manuel Díaz and colleagues. We have only one complete specimen in the Museum collection, collected in 1999 off the coast of Venez