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NERITIDAE 129
Nerita fulgurans Gmelin Antillean Nerite
Southeast Florida, the West Indies and Bermuda.
Plate 4c
% to I inch in length, very similar to N. tessellata, but with a lightercolored,
yellowish gray operculum. The spiral ridges on the shell are more
numerous, the color patterns blurred, the aperture relatively wider, and the
teeth more prominent. This is a salt to brackish-water inhabitant of pro-
tected shores, and is abundant only in certain restricted localities. It is
seldom represented or properly labeled in private collections.
Genus Puperita Gray 1857
Puperita pupa Linne Zebra Nerite
Southeast Florida and the West Indies.
Plate 4e
Vs to Mi inch in length, thin, smooth, chalky-white with black, axial,
zebra-like stripes. Aperture and smooth operculum light-yellow. Lives in
small, placid pools above the high-water mark. Common in the West Indies,
rare in Florida.
Genus Neritina Lamarck 18 16
Subgenus Vitta Morch 1852
Neritina virginea Linne Virgin Nerite
Florida to Texas, the West Indies and Bermuda.
Plate 4!
% inch in length, smooth, glossy, very variable in color pattern and
shades—blacks, browns, purples, reds, whites, olive—crooked lines, dots,
mottlings, zebra-like stripes and sometimes spirally banded. Parietal area
smooth, convex, white to yellow, and with a variable number of small,
irregular teeth. Operculum usually black. A very common, widespread
inhabitant of intertidal, brackish-water flats.
Neritina reclivata Say Olive Nerite
Florida to Texas and the West Indies.
Plate 4g
% inch in length, glossy, often with the spire eroded away. Ground
color brownish green, olive or brownish yellow with numerous axial lines
of black-brown or lavender. Operculum black to slightly brownish. Common
in brackish water and also found in fresh-water springs near the seashore
in Florida.
A globose form or subspecies (?) with a short spire and more convex
whorls replaces the higher-spired, typical form from Texas to Panama, but