Hi Nancy,

I think your last specimen could be a Cypraea cervus. I have one that
looks almost exactly like it but has more tooth development and a bit of
spotting evident on the margins. Same size, same aperture, prominent
spire, very thin and fragile. It was live taken in the Florida Keys
(west end of 7 mile Bridge) by a friend who didn't know what it was. C.
cervinetta, as Bob Nuelle mentioned, is another good guess if i ts
Panamic.

If it is Indo-Pacific, I have a young testudinaria that has similar
striping, a less cylindrical look than most testudinaria, more like your
shell, and an open aperture like yours, due to scant callus and tooth
formation. But its teeth are not pigmented, and yours already are.

I don't know how you can tell for sure without some idea of the province
it came from, or even the ocean. So many Cypraea have this dorsal
striping and open apertures as juveniles. But there are only a few that
grow this large.

Lynn Scheu
Louisville, KY


Nancy Smith wrote:
>
> Hello folks,
>
> Please visit this link and send me your thoughts on the species IDs of
> these juveniles.  I appreciate it very much.  :)
>
> http://nansaidh.home.mindspring.com/
>
> Best regards,
> Nancy