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242 American Seashells
light-chestnut, reddish brown or dark-brown. Not so shouldered as, and less
coarsely sculptured than, mcgintyi. It is much stouter and not so elongate as
infundibulum, but like that species may have narrow, brown spiral lines or
threads. Moderately common in the West Indies.
Genus Fasciolaria Lamarck 1799
Fasciolaria tulipa Linne True Tulip
North Carolina to south half of Florida and West Indies.
Plate 13b
3 to 5 inches in length, with 2 or 3 small spiral grooves just below the
suture, between which the shell surface is often crinkled. Sometimes with
broken spiral color lines. A beautiful orange-red color variety is not uncommon
on the Lower Keys. Common. Giants reach a length of 10 inches.
Fasciolaria hunteria Perry Banded Tulip
North Carolina to Florida and the Gulf States.
Plate 13c
2 to 4 inches in length, whorls entirely smooth near the suture. The
widely spaced, rarely broken, distinct, spiral, purple-brown lines are charac-
teristic. Albino shells are rare. A common western Florida species which
lives in warm, shallow areas. Formerly F. distans Lamarck, a later name.
The subspecies braiihamae Rehder and Abbott from Yucatan to off west
Texas has a much longer siphonal canal and the spiral color lines are also on
the siphonal canal. Intergrades exist in Louisiana and Alabama. Branham's
Tulip is moderately common.
Genus Pleuroploca P. Fischer 1884
Pleuroploca gigantea Kiener Florida Horse Conch
North Carolina to both sides of Florida.
Plate 13a
Almost 2 feet in length, although usually about i foot. Outer surface
dirty-white to chalky-salmon, and covered with a fairly thick, black-brown
periostracum which flakes off in dried specimens. The young (up to about
3% inches) have a thinner periostracum and the entire shell is a bright orange-
red. A form which lacks the nodules on the last whorl was named reevei
Philippi 1 85 1. P. papulosa Sowerby 1825 is insufficiently described to apply
with any certainty to this species.
A similar, large species, P. prmceps Sowerby (the Panama Horse Conch),
occurs from the Gulf of California to Ecuador. Its operculum has deep,
rounded grooves. Both of these Horse Conchs were previously put in the
genus Fasciolaria.
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