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LITTORINIDAE 13 3
Littorina angulifera Lamarck Angulate Periwinkle
South half of Florida, the West Indies and Bermuda.
Plate 19a
About I inch in length; thin-shelled but strong. First two or three
whorls smooth, remainder with many fine, spiral grooves. Last whorl sometimes
carinate. Color variable—whitish, yellowish or orange- to red-brown
with darker, wavy, vertical, oblique stripes. Columella pale purplish with
whitish edges. Operculum pale-brown. Common in mangrove areas where
the waters are calm and brackish. It is found high above the high-tide mark
clinging to wharf pilings, and is often seen on the trunks and branches of
mangrove trees. Introduced to the Pacific side of the Panama Canal. L.
scabra Linne is from the Indo-Pacific.
Littorina obtiisata Linne Northern Yellow Periwinkle
Labrador to Cape May, New Jersey. Northwest Europe.
Plate igf
/i to % inch in length, equally wide, with a low spire; smoothish. Color
variable but usually a uniform, bright, brownish yellow or orange-yellow.
Sometimes with a white or brown spiral band. Columella whitish. Operculum
bright yellow to orange-brown. This is L. palliata Say. A common
coastal species associated with rockweeds.
Littorina mespilhvm Miihlfeld Dwarf Brown Periwinkle
Florida Keys and the Caribbean Area.
Plate 19k
M inch in length, somewhat shaped like obtusata. Characterized by its
dark-brown periostracum, glossy-brown columella and aperture, by its tiny,
chink-like umbilicus, and by the presence, in some specimens, of rows of
small, round blackish spots. Common in "splash-pools" from high-tide line
to 6 or 7 feet above.
Littorina saxatilis Olivi Northern Rough Periwinkle
Arctic Seas to Cape May, New Jersey. Arctic Seas to Puget Sound.
Plate i9d
% to /4 inch in length, resembling a "distorted, small L. littorea.^^
Adults characterized by poorly developed, smoothish, fine spiral cords. Color
drab gray to dark-brown. Interior of aperture chocolate-brown. Females
give birth to live, shelled young. Often found with L. obtusata, but not so
common. This is L. rudis Maton and L. groenlandica Menke.