| Photo - click to enlarge | Scientific name |
Common name |
Comments |
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Argopecten irridians |
Bay
Scallop (live) |
Grows to 3". One valve is white, the other dark. Once common in Tampa Bay, then vanished. This is the first one we have seen in eleven years of seining. |
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Perna viridis | Green Mussel | An alien species, originally from the Indo-Pacific. It irst showed up off Trinidad in 1990. It currently ranges from Tampa Bay to Charlotte Harbor. Grows to 6". |
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Bursatella leachii pleii |
Ragged Sea Hare |
Usually tan with white and brown spots. Body covered with thin protrusions giving it a hairy appearance. Usually in grass beds. Can grow to ten inches in length. Taken out of the water, they collapse into an indistinguishable blob but quickly recover on reimmersion. This one is immature, about 4 inches long. |
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Bursatella
leachii (top view) |
Ragged Sea Hare (juvenile) |
Juvenile ragged
sea hare. (about 2 inches long) |
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(bottom view) | ||
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Eggs of Sea Hare | Microscopic view (100x) of a single strand. (probably Bursatella spp.) | |
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Egg mass of Sea Hare | A six cm. clump; like thin, green spaghetti. (probably Bursatella spp.) | |
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Busycon
contrarium (=B. perversum) |
Lightning whelk | The largest gastropod in Sarasota Bay, grows up to 16 inches in length. Note that the shell twists to the left. This one has a Southern Quahog firmly in its grasp. |
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Similiar to B. canica, the knobbed whelk, but the aperture is on the left. Can reach 16" in length. | ||
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View showing spiral growth. | ||
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Fasciolara huntaria
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Banded Tulip Snail
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Smaller than the tulip snail, F. tulipa. Both are shellfish predators. |
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Fasciolara | Egg case of a tulip snail. | |
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Fasciolaria spp. | Egg case of a Tulip Snail. | |
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Haminosa solitaria | Solitary paper bubble | This sea slug has a fragile shell, partially covered by a mantle. Length overall about one inch. Normally within bottom sediment. |
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Melongena corona |
Crown conch |
Very common in muddy areas, especially around mangroves. It eats bivalves such as oysters. Because it is direct developing (when the eggs hatch the juveniles crawl away - rather than spending time as veliger larvae in the plankton) there are many local population varieties. Some are heavier, some smaller, some have more spines, etc. There are about 5 subspecies based on local variations. |
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Normally covered with mud, the shell when thoroughly washed shows colored bands. | ||
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Pleuroploca gigantes | Horse Conch | This behemoth has engulfed a lightning whelk (Busycon contrarium). |
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Polinices duplicatus | Sand Collar | Egg case of the Moon Snail, Polinices duplicatus. The gelatinous case holds thousands of eggs intersticed between grains of sand. |
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Lytechinus
varigatus (Aboral View) |
Short-spined sea urchin | Feeds on sea grasses. About 3" in diameter. |
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(Oral View) |
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Mellita quinquiesperforata | Five-holed Keyhole Urchin | This is the skeleton (test) of a common sand dollar. When alive, it is covered with short spines, usually tan. Note the star pattern in its center. About 3 inches in diameter. |
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Aristotle's Lantern |
Sea urchins graze on algae using a mouth with five sturdy teeth radially distributed and worked hydraulically. The whole assembly has known as Aristotle's Lantern for well over two centuries. (About 5/8" in diameter at the base) | |
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Ophiothrix angulata (aboral view) | Angular Brittle Star (aboral) | The disk is about a half-inch in diameter. Found within a sponge. Identification tentative (i.e. don't bet the ranch on it) |
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Ophiothrix angulata (oral view) | Angular Brittle Star (oral) | Without microscopic examination, brittle star species are hard to positively identify. |
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Echinaster sentus | (no common name) | This juvenile is just over one inch from arm to arm. Color can vary from tan to deep red. Adult is bright red. |