download pdf

128 American Seashells
acterized by its very small size, and by about a dozen obliquely set, spiral
bright-red lines. The top of the whorls may be solid red and with large,
opaque-white spots. Umbilicus a mere chink-like depression. Operculum
calcareous and white. Tricolia variegata Carpenter is the same (not Lamarck)
Common among weeds in tidepools and among kelps offshore.
Fmnily NERITIDAE
Genus Nerita Linne 1758
Nerka peloronta Linne Bleeding Tooth
Southeast Florida, Bermuda and the West Indies.
Plate 4a
% to i^ inches in length; grayish yellow with zigzags of black and red.
Characterized by the blood-red parietal area which bears i or 2 whitish
teeth. Operculum: underside coral-pink; one half of outer side smooth and
dark-orange, other half smoothish or papillose and brownish green. Very
abundant along the rocky shores facing the open ocean. It is a popular
souvenir.
Nerita versicolor Gmelin Four-toothed Nerite
South % of Florida and the West Indies. Bermuda.
Plate 4b
% to I inch in length; dirty-white with irregular spots of black and red
arranged in spiral rows; spirally grooved; outer lip spotted with red, white
and black on margin. Parietal area slightly convex, white to yellowish and
with 4 (rarely 5) strong teeth. Operculum: exterior brownish gray, finely
papillose and slightly concave. Commonly associated with N. peloronta.
Nerita variegata Karsten (1789) is invalid, since it appears in a non-binomial
work.
Nerita tessellata Gmelin Tessellate Nerite
Florida to Texas, the West Indies and Bermuda.
Plate 4f
% inch in length, irregularly spotted with black and white, sometimes
heavily mottled; coarsely sculptured with spiral cords of varying sizes.
Parietal area concave, bluish-white and bearing 2 weak teeth in the middle.
Operculum: exterior slightly convex, black in color. Commonly congregate
in large numbers under rocks at low tide. Rare in northern Florida. Do not
confuse with N. fulgurans Gmelin whose operculum is bluish white to yel-
lowish gray, not black.
.