The Amber Glassy Bubble, Haminoea succinea (Conrad, 1846) has a very thin, glass-like shell. It belongs in the same Glassy Bubble Genus, Haminoea, as the Antilles Glassy Bubble, a species covered in this column a couple of years ago. Live glassy bubbles can be seen, sometimes in large numbers, in the bays and protected seagrass flats of Southwest Florida, in particular during the Spring. Glassy bubbles completely envelop their shells with their bodies. The different species are all simultaneous hermaphrodites (both male and female reproductive systems in the same individual, both functional at the same time). Their egg masses are transparent, gelatinous, collar-shaped structures containing thousands of tiny, yellowish-green eggs.
The Amber Glassy Bubble, Haminoea succinea, notice the transparent, “glassy” shell in the living snail (right).