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American Seashells

Orbigny is ¼ to ½ inch in length, with its umbilicus not so much covered, and it may be only a form of this species.


Polinices immaculatus Totten
Immaculate Moon-shell

Gulf of St. Lawrence to North Carolina.

⅜ inch in length, subovate, smooth, milk-white and glossy when deprived of its thin greenish-yellow periostracum. The ivory-white, thickened callus does not encroach upon the small, round, deep umbilicus. Operculum corneous, thin, light-brown. Commonly dredged off New England, and often found in fish stomachs.


Polinices brunneus Link
Brown Moon-shell
Plate 5j

Southeast Florida (rare), West Indies (Texas?).

1 to 2 inches in length, heavy, glossy-smooth, with a deep, white umbilicus and small, low spiral callus. Exterior tan to orange-brown. Operculum corneous, thin, amber-brown.


Polinices uberinus Orbigny
Dwarf White Moon-shell

North Carolina to southeast Florida and the Caribbean.

½ inch in length, very similar to lacteus, but the umbilical opening is larger, the callus is button-shaped and located against the columella near the center, and there is a large, rounded ridge running back from the callus into the umbilicus. Commonly dredged from 15 to 100 fathoms. Rarely in beach drift.


Subgenus Neverita Risso 1826

Polinices duplicatus Say
Shark Eye

{{right|Plates 5k; 22h

Cape Cod to Florida and the Gulf States.

1 to 2½ inches in length, glossy-smooth; umbilicus deep but almost covered over by a large, button-like, brown callus. Color slate-gray to tan; base of shell often whitish. Columella white. The shell is generally flattened and much wider than high, but some specimens (pl. 22h) are as wide as high and globose in shape. Operculum corneous, brown, and thin. This is a very common sand-lover found along our eastern coasts. Compare young specimens with Natica livida.