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ACMAEIDAE
105

12 inch in maximum diameter, very narrow, 3 times as long as wide. Sides straight with brown vertical stripes on a whitish background. Smoothish. This species is found on the broad-leaved eel-grass of the estuaries. Abundant in certain localities, such as Mission Bay.

Acmaea instabilis Gould
Unstable Limpet
Plate 18zz

Alaska to San Diego, California.

1 to 1+14 inches in maximum diameter, oblong with a rather high apex. Sides compressed. Lower edge curved so that the shell rocks back and forth if put on a flat surface. Exterior dull, light-brown. Interior whitish with faint brown stain in the center and with a narrow, solid border of brown. Inhabits the stems or holdfasts of large seaweeds. Moderately common.

Acmaea insessa Hinds
Seaweed Limpet
Plate 18z

Alaska to Lower California.

12 to 34 inch in maximum diameter, narrowly elliptical, with a high apex, and colored a uniform, greasy light-brown. Abundant on the stalks or hold-fasts of the large seaweeds, such as Egregia.

Acmaea paleacea Gould
Chaffy Limpet

Vancouver, B.C., to Lower California.

14 inch in maximum diameter, very fragile, translucent-brown, 3 or 4 times as long as wide. Sides straight with fine, raised radial threads. Abundant on the narrow-leaved eel-grass of the open coast.


Atlantic Coast Species

Acmaea testudinalis testudinalis Müller
Atlantic Plate Limpet

Arctic Seas to Long Island Sound, New York.

1 to 1+12 inches in maximum diameter, oval in outline, moderately high with the apex nearly at the center of the shell. Smoothish except for a few coarse growth lines and numerous, very fine axial threads. Interior bluish white with a dark- to light-brown center and with short, radial brown bars at the edge. Exterior dull cream-gray with irregular axial bars and streaks of brown. A common littoral species in New England. Formerly referred to as A. tessulata Müller. The form alveus Conrad is a thin, elongate, heavily mottled ecological variant which lives on eel-grass.