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MURIGIDAE 203
Outer lip crenulate and with 3 or 4 daubs of dark-brown. A very common
shallow water species.
Section Muricanthus Swainson 1840
Murex fuhescens Sowerby Giant Eastern Murex
North Carolina to Florida and to Texas.
Plate lob
5 to 7 inches in length. Characterized by the large shell, and the strong,
straight, rather short spines. Exterior milky-white to dirty-gray. Aperture
enamel white. Thin spiral color lines are usually prominent on the whorls.
Fairly common along the shallow areas of northeastern Florida where they
are found abundantly during the breeding season. Well-known to the shrimp
fishermen whose nets often ensnare them. Murex burryi Clench and Far-
fante is probably the young of this species.
Section Murexiella Clench and Farfante 1945
Murex hidalgoi Crosse Hidalgo's Murex
North Carolina to the Lesser Antilles.
Figure 45a
I to 1/4 inches in length. Spines frondose and long, with webbing in
between which is exquisitely sculptured with scale-like lamellations. Color
grayish white to cream. This is probably the rarest of our eastern Murex
species. Recently, one specimen was dredged oif northeast Florida in a few
fathoms of water.
Subgenus Chicoreus Montfort 18 10
Murex brevifrons Lamarck West Indian Murex
Lower Florida Keys and the West Indies.
Plate loa
3 to 6 inches in length. Numerous, stout, fairly long spines on the
varices which arch backwards and bear sharp fronds. Raised, spiral lines
prominent between the varices. Color variable from cream to dark-brown.
Uncommon in the Lower Keys, but fairly common to abundant in the West
Indies. Percy Morris (1951, pi. 14, fig. i) labels this species as Murex
fiorifer.
Murex fiorifer Reeve Lace Murex
South half of Florida and the West Indies.
Plate loe
I to 3 inches in length. Aperture small, nearly round. 8 to 10 crowded.