Nassa (Bruised Nassa)
I’ve been so obsessed with the Sanibel’s Middle Gulf Rd beaches and Captiva lately, that I’ve neglected my old time fave beach… the Lighthouse. Thats’s where I found this mini half inch beauty the BRUISED NASSA. I updated this a few hours after I wrote this original post in which I misidentified this shell as a WHITE NASSA. Thank you to Bird and MurexKen for your keen eyes!
Bruised Nassa aperture
I also found shelling sistah and blogger Kaybe from The Essential Beachcomber (click on that link to see her “You might be a shell addict if you…”) finding WENTLETRAPS and BABY’S EARS.
Beachcomber Kaybe (Englewood, FL)
Kaybe’s minis….
And I found more beach art. Another mermaid! This is for you Anna N…
I did take a couple of photos of Captiva’s Blind Pass on Monday and the beach and sand bar, of course, have changed. Not many shells on the left side of the jetty but the right side of the jetty had a little pile building.
Sand bar beach left side of jetty
This next picture shows a little pile of shells that was building up and look who was there working the pile …. Teresa from my January 2 post. She had found a couple of FLATS and a CONE. Look at that fog!
Right side of jetty on Captiva
The picture of the day that made me smile from ear to ear for probably an hour after I saw it on the iLoveShelling FaceBook page….Thank you Mary Ann!!! You made me speechless.
Love your pictures/posts and am dreaming of shelling on this beach someday. Never been, but you have me insired to want to visit. I’m from Northern California and our beaches here don’t have many shells.
I have a few of those little white nassa’s in my unidentified jar…glad I can pull them out..now I need a new bottle for my white nassa’s!!!
Hey Pam!!! Happy New Year!!! Been finding a bunch of Nassa shells up here in Pinellas county… plus a SUPER shocker – I picked up a BABY’s EAR yesterday on Indian Rocks Beach. I couldn’t believe the luck. So this week and last I have picked up quite a few “firsts”… first baby’s ear, first large right handed whelk (I think it’s a pear whelk), first angel wing (or false – I cant tell the difference) and my first flat scallop. Also picked up my 3rd alphabet cone yesterday and a few wentletraps too… will post a picture on your facebook page soon. :) Oh! and… i found another (beat up yucky looking) piece of a JUNONIA again up here – was super shocked! Maybe I’ll actually find a whole one some day.
I would have guessed Bruised Nassa on this one.
Mary Ann sure has some nice worms and cones in her T-shirt pic! And that juvie fighting conch in the upper right has a very cool pattern.
Hmmm. Well? You could be right!…. we’ll see if MurexKen is around for an expert opinion. Thanks Bird! I always love to have feedback if I incorrectly name something. We all learn!
The wormies were actually given to me by Pam—and I will treasure them always—-but they will be kept in my ‘non-collected’ collection :-)
Pam, as always, your pictures are beautiful. Your blog seems to have just the right mixture of good shelling information and great pictures with your artistic interpretation of everyday shelling experiences on Sanibel Island. Since I am usually focused on the informational/scientific aspects of shell collecting, I very much appreciate your emphasis on the artistic aspects of our hobby. It is always good to stop and smell the roses. Or, in our case, stop and smell the shells, even if they sometimes contain the decaying remains of the dead mollusk that the sea has not yet completely washed away. Aaaahhhhhh, the sweet smell of success. ;~)
Thank you for asking me about the ID of the Nassa or Dog Whelk, as it is sometimes called. Since the “common” names may vary from one location to another, it is sometimes best to use the scientific names to insure good communication. Your small shell is a member of the Nassarius genus. The BMSM website, http://shellmuseum.org/shells/shellspic.cfm?sr=81 lists three species of Nassarius that are found on Sanibel Island, the Nassarius aff. albus (White nassa), the Nassarius consensus (Striate nassa), and the Nassarius vibex (Bruised nassa). Although I have been collecting on Sanibel Island for many years, I have only ever collected the Nassarius vibex or Bruised nassa. Since Dr. Leal lists the other two species on the BMSM website, I am sure that they can be found on Sanibel Island, but they must not be all that common, especially relative to the Bruised nassa.
Having reviewed more closely your picture of the Nassa, I see that it apparently has a relatively broad “shield” adjacent to its aperature or opening. This relatively broad shield (in mature shells) is one of the features that helps to differentiate the Bruised nassa, Nassarius vibex, http://shellmuseum.org/shells//shelldetails.cfm?id=86 and http://www.gastropods.com/0/Shell_1930.shtml from the White nassa, Nassarius aff. albus, http://www.gastropods.com/9/Shell_1929.shtml.
For these and other reasons, I believe that your small shell is the Bruised nassa or Nassarius vibex. I hope that this information is helpful. Please keep up your great blog posts.
MK saves the day… one more time. You are a sheller’s dream to be able to get such rich information to solve any mollusk mystery. Wait! You are- “MurexKen….. The Mollusk Mystery Man!” LOL
And thank you for your sweet compliments on my blog… it means a lot.
Now that I have scrutinized Mary Ann’s photo more, I am love in with the albino adult fighting conch. If I found that shell, it would be very treasured!
WOW, great pics as usual, Pam. Like I told my husband, shelling is sorta like Forrest Gump’s comment about the box of chocolates…you never know what you’re going to get! Yes? And Mary Ann’s collection of shells is really nice…a great color range on all the different types. I love the shells I found on Sanibel over Christmas week, but her collections just makes me want to climb on the next flight available and stay on Sanibel for a few months! Seriously! It’s in the blood I guess. Some folks don’t get it, ya know? I count myself fortunate and blessed to have found your blog and fellow shellsters to communicate with! Love to you all!
p.s. found a bumper sticker there that really tickled me…”Go to Shell!” in big letters and below it…Sanibel Island, FL. LOL
I ACTUALLY BOUGHT THAT STICKER – LOVE IT!!!
got my hunting adrenaline going!! cant wait til i am there!!!
That Nassa seashell is a new one for me!! Never seen one before, and really never heard of it before!!! It is a neat looking shell!! And that iloveshelling T-shirt with all of the seashells spread on it and around it is awesome!!! What a wonderful treasure of seashellls!!!! WOW!!!! Just cannot imagine my life without seashells and shelling!!!! :)
that mermaid is sooo pretty!!
Come On! That is one tricked-out tee shirt. Always fun to bump in to you at the beach :) Thanks for the wentletrap lesson. I need tri-focal sunglasses. 1 view for sharks teeth, 1 view for brown & cream speckled shells, & a micro-view for wentle’s.
PS-Don’t worry, I won’t let anyone know your birthday is coming up. Hardly anyone reads this blog right…oh did I write that out loud :O
OH…a birthday girl soon??!!! When!!??
Her birthday is January 20th… and guess where we’re going that day…..shelling!
Love the picture with the fog. And the shirt looks good as well. As always, your postings are much appreciated.
Everytime I think I’ve collected at least one of everything————drat,,,,ok ….I don’t remember seeing a Nassa on the list of Sanibel shells I bought at the shell store! Maybe you should put out your own book, Pam.
Oh, and Pam, I think I should have gotten a bigger T-shirt—–I couldn’t fit all my favorites on it……Actually, I’m hoping next December you have some ‘I Love Shelling’ sweat shirts…..really, I mean it.
Thanks- I’m working on it! Those cold days got me wanting one too.
DEAR PAM……………………..FOLLOWING YOUR WEEKLY “FINDS” IS ALMOST MORE THEN WE THE SANIBEL SISTERS CAN STAND………WE WANT TO JUMP ON THE NEXT PLANE AND JOIN YOU.
THE PHOTOS ARE WONDERFUL . THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE TIME YOU SPEND KEEPING US UP TO DATE ON WHAT IS HAPPENING IN OUR FAVORITE PLACE IN THE WORLD……….SANIBEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WE HAVE HAD SOME GOOD DAYS IN THE PAST BUT THIS WINTER IS INCREDIBLE AND BEYOND WHAT WE HAVE SEEN. MAYBE FOR A DAY OR TWO BUT NOT DAY AFTER DAY.
WE ARE COUNTING THE DAYS UNTIL WE ARRIVE IN MAY…….PLEASE SAVE SOME SHELLS FOR US.
SISTER JUDY HAS A REOCCURING DREAM THAT SHE CAN NEVER PICK UP THE SHELLS AND I HAVE ONE OFTEN THAT IS JUST AS FRUSTRATING …………MINE IS THAT WE HAVE BEEN THERE FOR A MONTH AND WE HAVE NOT SHELLED ONCE. IT IS THE LAST DAY AND WE ARE ON THE BEACH BUT NOT ABLE TO FIND ANYTHING. :)
BLESSINGS SANIBEL SISTER LINDA
Love that Mermaid! And thanks for mentioning the names of some of those shells…it will help when i clean my loot!
Smiles~
Cricket
Pam,
My hubby and I are glad you twisted our arms and made us go shelling on New Years wkend. I posted a pic on the FB page of my hubby with “our” first junonia, only 80% complete, but still – it’s a junonia!!
We are the crazy ones up at 3 a.m. and on the sandbar at Blind Pass by 4 a.m., headlamps and all. We enjoyed New Years morning since we were the only ones on the sandbar and had some lovely finds. Two empty welks, one white and the other partially white which were new to us. A huge horse conch has turned out to be our happiest find. We found an empty one and it turned out beautiful!!! Oh and one of the Florida cones we found has a zigzag pattern – very neat!
After our shells have been cleansed, I’ll post our finds. :)
It was a great New Years, keep TWISTING our arms!!!
:) Alicia
Maybe the luck of the “junonia gods” will be with you on your birthday and one will roll up on your favorite beach or Clark could suprise you with a trip to some other place in the world with great shells not found here. A girl can dream. I don’t have my yearly goal shell since I found my “weenties” and babys ears at the Lighthouse but more then pieces of junonias are always up there. Great pics, would love to run into the “shell artist” on the beach.
Pam–
My daughter love, love, LOVED the mermaid!
Thank you,
Yvette
So in your opinion, what other places in the world offer the same kind of joy and variety in shell collecting as Sanibel-Captiva? Have you gone shelling anywhere else?
Hmmm. We’ve never been any where that has produced the variety of shells like SanCap but our second favorite place that we’ve shelled is Belize.
Hi Pam
What a lovely beach.. fabulous spot.. and that beach art is simply wonderful!! love the mermaid.. and the fishy in the last post too!!
Thanks for your kind visit.. I hope 2011 brings you much happiness.. xxx Julie