Hi Anne, What you are describing are whelk egg cases. We have them all over the Gulf coast as well. There are several species of whelks along the Atlantic coast, some with the aperture (the opening through which the snail emerges from its shell) on the right and some on the left (I'd be happy to provide the scientific names of the various species if your interested. It won't be hard to find out which species are around the Chesapeake from the internet...perhaps something for the students to pursue?). Each of the discs contain anywhere from 20-40 or so juvenile snails. Let me know if I can provide any further information. Cheers, Ryan Moody ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ryan M. Moody Dauphin Island Sea Lab 101 Bienville Boulevard Dauphin Island, AL 36528 (251) 861-7532 (251) 861-7540 (fax) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >From: Anne Pemberton <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: Conchologists of America List <[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Conch Egg Cases? >Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 17:08:56 -0400 > >Folks, > Hello, I am new to the list and, typical of teachers, I have a >question. > > We have spent many wonderful days looking for interesting shells >and artifacts on Bavon Beach in Mathews County, Va, on the Chesapeake Bay. >Over the years, I've brought back a unique item that hubby identified as an >egg case for conches. The wash up on the beach during the spring, sometime >the beach is almost littered with them. The are each a long string with a >large number of round sacques attached to the string. Each round sacque, >when opened, contains a number of tiny white shells that resemble conch >cells. Usually the material of the round sacque is fragile and the sacques >almost crumble in your hand. > > I got one of the long egg cases from the beach last weekend and >brought it to class for biology. We are studying the animal Kingdom. (I >teach six home school kids age 9 to 17 whose mother died a while back). >This egg case was tougher than the others, and we had to use scissors to >get into the round sacques. Some had only sand in them, but the others had >the usual tiny shells. > > David, my 10 year old asked how big was the conch that laid this >string of egg sacques, and I had no answer for him. The whole string of >sacques would probably be 18-24", and each of the round sacques, are about >an inch across or less. Those near the ends are smaller. I did a google >search to try to find the answer to David's question with no luck, so I >thought I'd try this list. > > Does anyone know what it is? If it is an egg case, is it the >product of one female, or is it some kind of nursery? > > Thanks for any help you can provide. > > Anne Pemberton > > > > > > >>[log in to unmask] > >Anne Pemberton >[log in to unmask] > >http://www.erols.com/stevepem >http://www.educationalsynthesis.org _________________________________________________________________ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail