i don't know if they will help, but there are at least two photos of
the live animal on the Jax  Shell Club site. The photographers (Deb
Devers, Charlotte Thorp) may also have other pictures that may help
address your question.  And of course there could be pics in any
number of shell books or elsewhere on the net....

On 7/4/15, David Kirsh <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Ellen,
>
> Did you find the Xeno at Xeno Beach?
>
> Coral fragments, shells, bottle caps, smiley face stickers....what is the
> adornment?
>
> David Kirsh, LPC, RN
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>
>> On Jul 4, 2015, at 6:11 PM, Harry Lee <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> Dear Ellen and Olivier,
>>
>> Since I was singled out, let me try.
>>
>> Ponder (1983: 5) indicated that the xenophorid operk was subject to lots
>> of breakage during life, but in pristine condition it is roughly
>> fan-shaped. The nucleus (earliest portion) is at narrow end, and growth
>> radiates outward from that point. The animal's side (top of the back of
>> the foot), where the cotton should be, has an attachment scar which
>> occupies the wide half of the structure. When the operk is held with this
>> side facing you and the attachment scar upward, the right side is on the
>> observer's left and vice-versa. The opposite is true when viewing the
>> outer edge. So we have beginning and end, inside and outside, left and
>> right, front and back.
>>
>> Armed with all this information, I cannot tell you how the operculum
>> should be oriented in the aperture since I don't know what convolutions
>> the foot undergoes as it retracts into it. My guess is that the front
>> (wide end} is apicad (toward the earliest part of the shell), but direct
>> field observations are necessary. It may be that the snail is somewhat
>> indifferent to the posture of the operculum at closure.
>>
>> As Casey Stengel often intoned, "wait'l next year." You may be able to
>> solve this little mystery at that time - in Eleuthera.
>>
>> Harry
>>
>> Ponder, W.F., 1983. Xenophoridae of the World. Memoir 17 of the Australian
>> Museum. Sydney, Australia. 126 pp.
>>
>>
>> At 05:09 PM 7/4/2015, Olivier CARO wrote:
>>> GREAT question. I will watch out for these answers... Thank you Ellen.
>>>
>>>
>>> Le 04/07/2015 21:37, Ellen Bulger a écrit :
>>>> Hallo Conch-L Campers,
>>>>
>>>> So I found some Xenophora on our most recent trip to Eleuthera (with
>>>> the
>>>> most excellent Jim Cordy and most excellent Tom Ball).
>>>>
>>>> Oh the euphoria! Oh the gloating!
>>>>
>>>> I will write a trip report, maybe more than one. I will post pictures
>>>> from
>>>> the trip. There are just a few already up on my Flickr. I have more, but
>>>> I
>>>> have been tied up with various things. I'm behind in so many things,
>>>> email
>>>> not the least of them.
>>>>
>>>> I will take photos of my Xenophabulous finds, you know I will. I will
>>>> SHARE.
>>>>
>>>>   But just now I am cleaning my glorious Xenos.
>>>>
>>>> Soak and swish and soak and swish and soak and swish and I feel like an
>>>> ear, nose & throat specialist, trying to clear out these stubborn
>>>> spiral
>>>> spaces of residue, except that the smells are, at times, halfway
>>>> between
>>>> diaper pail and CSI.
>>>>
>>>> I have just a couple that still need the swishing. Most have already
>>>> had
>>>> their bleach bath and have been oiled. A few have reached the point
>>>> where I
>>>> have stuffed the apertures with cotton and stand ready to glue on the
>>>> 'perks (I have ever so meticulously kept each specific perc with its
>>>> particular shell.)
>>>>
>>>> Slobbo moi, I am doing it right this time.
>>>>
>>>> Only,
>>>> ONLY,
>>>> only...
>>>>
>>>> I don't know which way is UP.
>>>>
>>>> I know which side of the operculum was facing the snail and which faced
>>>> the
>>>> outside world. But which edge of the perc pointed dorsally, towards the
>>>> spire and which was ventral, towards the seafloor, I know not. And I'm
>>>> damned if I'm going to glue them on the wrong way.
>>>>
>>>> So can anyone give me pointers? Harry? Dolores? Somebody? Please!
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>>
>>>> Ellen Bulger
>>>>
>>>> (Not a Xeno Xpert, just a Xeno FIEND!)
>>>>
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