olivella perplexa?
I’m a little perplexed. Is this an OLIVELLA PERPLEXA shell? First of all, I couldn’t find a common name for it or a good reference for it. Not that I don’t have respect for the “real” names of the shells we find, but I just happen to prefer the common …..ok- the “easy” name. And second, I couldn’t get a good picture of it. Yet another camera died on me…grrrrr. Well, I’ve just got to get used to this Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS6.
olivella perplexa( ? )other side
This shell doesn’t have a lot of detail but I wanted you to see the whorls on the top.
Olivella perplexa (?)
Maybe that’s a little better photo. Clark pulled this up in the sifter while looking for wentletraps. I dont think I’ve ever found these shells before but maybe I just never thought they looked like much… I don’t know…. See? I’m perplexed.
Clark on the hunt
UPDATE: January 22, 2014… Ive just realized that since this post was written (October 18, 2010), I have learned this shell is a WHITE MELAMPUS. Take a look at my post about these shells written June 19, 2012… http://www.iloveshelling.com/blog/2012/06/19/collecting-fossils-seashells-and-memories-on-boca-grande/
Pam, I looked up Olivella perplexa, and your shell is too big to be that species, and I don’t think it is an Olivella. I think it is a land snail, maybe a baby Euglandia rosa.
Congratulations on the 1 year aniversary of your site. I gave a talk about shells last Tuesday to a community college class at Southwestern College in San Diego County, and I mentioned this site to the students.
It’s very pretty! Almost looks like a snail type shell.
Lovely and dainty…..does the “Specialist” (MK) have a common name for it? If he doesn’t know it, it probably doesn’t have one :- D
Pam, What do you do with all the shells you find?
I have no idea what it is but it sure is pretty :)
Pam, I agree with Scott Rugh. Although your shell appears to have a similar shape/color as Olivella perplexa, http://shellmuseum.org/shells/shelldetails.cfm?id=104 it appears to be about two centimeters in length, which is way too long for O. perplexa. It may well be a land snail, but I am not very familiar with terrestrial mollusks. You might want to show some of the other Olivella species you find when you and Clark are out there looking for Epi’s. Most people do not notice them because they are so small. Just a suggestion. Happy anniversary.
We found one of these when we were on Sanibel as well…have it on display but had no clue what it was- but liked it anyway:-)
I have found a few of these too and looked it up in a book a few years ago. I think the common name I found was Dwarf Olive.
Wow, is this not the perfect shell?? And what a cute name – Dwarf Olive? Pruxxx
P.S. Pam, thanks for your kind comment about my driftwood fish. Glad you liked it! Pruxxx
Pam would easily be able to ID this shell correctly now, but in case someone is looking back in the archives and sees this, I wanted to explain that this shell is not an Olivella but the White Melampus:
http://shellmuseum.org/shells/shelldetails.cfm?id=150
It’s one of those snails that lives right above the high tide line.
These pretty white shells are also shown on Pam’s blog on this page (from Boca Grande):
http://www.iloveshelling.com/blog/category/seashells/melampus/white-melampus/
Thanks Susan H.! They’re a neat shell – I’ll have to keep my eye out for them next time I’m in Florida!
I would also like to find one! :) I reckon we would be most likely to find one on Lighthouse Beach — I think that is where Pam found this one in 2012.
I’m perplexed now too! I got a notification that this post was new! LOL
Me too!
Well my note was brand new today, even if the blog post itself was old…. :)
I’m perplexed too to see that this post from October 2010 and u are getting it as new. Yikes!
…and that I never went back to say that it was a white melampus. Thank you Susan h. I need to go back on my earlier posts to update IDs now. It’s funny to look back and see the progression of my shell identifications…. So cool!
Haha don’t get me wrong – I was happy, since I hadn’t read this post. And yay for updates too! :)
Took me forever to realize it was old though – I clicked on the link to enter the contest and saw it was over, so I figured maybe I clicked on the wrong link, then maybe the link was old…… then OH! The actual POST is old! Haha I feel like that’s my Wednesday brain showing!
Funnier thing is that I was just talking about looking back at some of my old posts in the archives and that I should add “Related Posts” to the end of each post so the related archives will show up. Then boom! An old post showed up all by itself! Twilight Zone. So I just did an UPDATE at the end of this post and I also added a list of related posts at the end. But… to get to your question… we find the white melampus shells at Cayo Costa on a regular basis when we go on the Captiva Cruises boat.