As a beginning to my collection of Cypraea, I made several purchases of
more common shells from local south Florida / Keys shell shops.   As I
particularly like larger cowries, I bought a few typically spotted C.
tigris and from the same "bin" one that has a purple top and one that is
half purple/half creamy white patch on the top with the same spotting on
the lower portion as the tigris and the teeth are very similar.  However I
find no references in my limited library or online of C. tigris with a
solid colored top.

I did however find an image of C. angustata (Plump/Tight cowrie) that
looked very much like these shells in question.

My question specifically is are there variations in C. tigris to include
solid areas of coloring on the tops of the shells, and more broadly how can
one be sure when attempting to identify any shell, if you are looking at a
different species or simply a color/pattern variation of another???    I
guess you could say I tend to be a bit fanatic about absolutely correctly
identifying my specimens.  :)

And lastly, thanks in advance for your patience with beginners.  :)


Kindly,
Nancy Smith
Sunrise, FL