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MURICIDAE
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Urosalpinx tampaensis Conrad Tampa Drill Tampa Bay area, west Florida. V2 to I inch in length; the light-brown aperture is thickened and the outer lip has 6 small, white teeth. With about 9 to 1 1 sharp, axial ribs per whorl, crossed by about 9 to i o equally strong spiral cords on the last whorl, thus giving the shell a cancellate sculpture. The whorls in the spire show only 2 spiral, nodulated cords. Exterior dark-gray. Common on mudflats. Genus Purpura Bruguiere 1789 Purpura patula Linne Wide-mouthed Purpura Plate 25I Southeast Florida and the West Indies. 2 to 3/4 inches in length; without an umbilicus. Exterior dull, rusty- gray. Columella salmon-pink. Inner borders of aperture with splotches of blackish brown. Common in the West Indies, uncommon in Florida. The animal exudes a harmless hquid which stains the hands and collecting bag a permanent violet. The subspecies pansa Gould (west coast of Mexico south to Columbia) is similar in most respects, but the columella is colored a whitish cream. Genus Thais Roding 1798 Subgenus Stramonita Schumacher 1817 Thais haemastoma floridaJia Conrad Florida Rock-shell Plate 25a North Carolina to Florida, and the Caribbean. 2 to 3 inches in length, solid, smooth to finely nodulose. Color light- gray to yellowish with small flecks and irregular bars of brownish. Interior of aperture salmon-pink, often with brown between the denticulations of the outer lip. Running inside the aperture high up on the body whorl above the parietal area, there is a strong spiral ridge. Some specimens have a faint fold or phca on the base of the columella. This is a very common species, but quite variable in shape and color pattern. Typical hae?7msto??M Lamarck oc- curs in the Mediterranean and West Africa. See additional remarks under Thais rustica. Thais haemastoma haysae Clench Hays' Rock-shell Northwest Floriaa to Texas. This subspecies is characterized by its large size (up to 4% inches in