>Hello everybody,
>
>I'm Fabio, a shell collector from Italy.
>
I have a question to
>anyone can help me: at the end of this summer a friend of mine gave me a
>microshell (what a friend!) found in a place of Tyrrhenian central coast. It
>was (not "is" because unfortunally it's broken!) a Peracle species.
>Is there anyone who can give me informations about this sinistrorse genus?
>
I know very little about Peracle, but it is not sinistral. It appears to be
sinistral because it coils in an "upward" (hyperstrophic) direction instead
of the normal "downward" (orthostrophic) direction, as do Limacina,
Lanistes and the protoconchs of Pyramidellidae and opisthobranchs. Some
abnormal adult Turbo and Heliacus do this also. What appears to be a spire
in these shells is in fact an everted (inside-out) umbilicus. The spire is
now sunken, giving the false impression of an umbilicus!

Andrew