download pdf

144 American Seashells
coiled mass (Erect Worm-shell); the latter occurs in deep water off south-
east Florida.
Aletes squamigerus Carpenter <
Forrester Island, Alaska, to Peru.
Genus Aletes Carpenter 1857
Scaled
Worm-shell
Plate 2oe
Grows in large, twisted masses. The shelly tubes are circular, K to %
inch in diameter. Sculpture of numerous, minutely scaled or rough, longi-
tudinal cords. Color gray to pinkish gray. The last part of the shell which
usually stands erect for % inch is smoothish. A very common, colonial spe-
cies found in masses on wharf pilings or attached to rocks below the low-
water line.
Genus Spiroglyphus Daudin 1800
Spiroglyphus Htuellus Morch Flat Worm-shell
Forrester Island, Alaska, to San Diego, California.
Plate 2od
A small worm-tube mollusk found adhering to rocks and the shells of
abalones in a tightly wound, flat spiral. The last whorl may grow up on top
of the previous whorls and be erect for ^ of an inch. Aperture circular,
about Vs inch in diameter. Shell solid, with 2 large, scaled cords which give
a somewhat squarish cross-section to the whole shell. Hollow scales and
fimbriations present elsewhere. Color cream to purplish gray. Operculum
horny, multispiral and brown. Moderately common.
There is a very similar species reported from the West Indies (5. annu-
latus Daudin).
Family SILIQUARIIDAE
Genus Vermicularia Lamarck 1799
Vermicularia spirata Philippi West Indian Worm-shell
Southeast Florida and the West Indies.
Plate 21c; figure 22i
Evenly and closely spiraled for about ^ inch, then becoming random
and drawn out in its worm-like coiling. Shell rather thin, colored a trans-
lucent to opaque amber, orange-brown or yellowish. Early whorls dark,
smooth, except for i (rarely 2) smooth, spiral cord on the middle of the
whorl. Subsequent whorls with 2 major cords which soon lose their promi-
nence. Smaller threads present, especially on the base of the shell. This is