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100 American Seashells
Subfamily FISSURELLINAE
Genus Fissurella Bruguiere 1789
Subgenus Creviides H. and A. Adams 1854
Fissurella nodosa Born Knobby Keyhole Limpet
Lower Florida Keys and the West Indies.
Plate I yd
I to 1% inches in length. 20 to 22 strongly nodulated, radial ribs. Mar-
gin sharply crenulated. Interior pure-white. Orifice oblong. An intertidal
rock-dweller. Uncommon in Florida and the Bahamas; abundant in the West
Indies.
Fissurella barhadensis Gmelin Barbados Keyhole Limpet
Southeast Florida, Bermuda and the West Indies.
Plate lyf
I to 1/4 inches in length. With irregular radiating ribs. Orifice almost
round. Inside with green and whitish concentric bands. Border of orifice
deep-green with a reddish-brown line. Outside grayish white to pinkish buff,
generally with purplish lines between the small ribs. Commonly blotched
with purple-brown. Lives on wave-dashed rocks. Common.
A similar, rather rare species, F. angusta Gmelin, also intertidal and frequently
covered with calcareous algae, occurs on the Florida Keys. The
shell is flattish, pointed in front, and its internal callus is light-brown to red-
dish brown, but not bounded by a reddish line as in barbadensis,
Fissurella rosea Gmelin Rosy Keyhole Limpet
Southeast Florida and the West Indies to Brazil.
Plate I ye
I inch in length, thin, flattish, narrower at the anterior end. Orifice
slightly oblong. Many radiating, small, rounded riblets. Color of alternating
whitish to pale-straw and pinkish rays. Interior pale-green at the margins,
blending to white in the center. Green orifice callus bordered by a pinkish
line. Common in beach drift. Do not confuse with the larger, more elevated
F. barbadensis.
Fissurella volcano Reeve Volcano Limpet
Crescent City, California, to Lower Cahfornia.
Plate 1 8c
% to I inch in lengtli, Y^ to almost /4 as high. Orifice at the very top,
very slightly nearer the somewhat narrower anterior end, and elongate with
deep, flat inner sides. Sculpture of numerous rather large, but low and