18 Marine Shells ok the Western Coast of Florida 



Collecting is best at low tide. Large shells are oftenest found 

 along the beaches near high water mark and whenever there is 

 an accumulation of sea wrack. After a quiet tide many minute shells 

 lie among the fine detritus left by the ebb tide in ridges along the 

 beach and in any small depressions in the sand. Living mollusks are 

 often washed ashore and many individuals of small species cling to 

 the rough surface of stranded shells or hide withm the cavities of 

 sponges and among the branches of hydroid colonies and seaweed. 

 Pieces of water-logged wood, wave worn shells and lumps of coral 

 are worth careful examination for specimens of such bormg genera 

 as Martesia, Lithophaga and Gastrochaena. Rupellaria, Corallio- 

 phaga, and Modiolus may be found in cavities not of their own 

 making. A bread sponge may harbor a colony of the uncommon 

 (Jstrea permollis. Specimens of a parasitic Melanella may be found at- 

 tached to the tough integument of holothurians (sea cucumbers), 

 and the dainty Erato 'tnaugeriae may share space on the rough valves 

 of Atrina with several different species of other small univalves and 

 attached bivalves. 



The shell of one living Atrina rigida, picked up at random after 

 a windblown tide, yielded the mollusks listed below together with 

 egg capsules of Anachis avara similis, Cantharus tinctus and C. 

 multangulus, and many individuals of other invertebrate groups: — 



Anachis avara similis, Anachis obesa, Anomia sitnplex, Area 

 zebra, Cantharus tinctus, Ischnochiton papUlosus, Monilisfira 

 monilis, Rubellatoma diomedea, Crepidula fortiicata, Erato maug- 

 eriae, Modiolaria lateralis, juvenile specimens of Murex florifer 

 arenarius and M. pomum, Crassostrea virginica, Cantharus floridanus 

 and Urosalpinx perrugata. 



At the fortnightly times of high tides coincident with the changes 

 of the moon, the ebb exposes a wide extent of beach and leaves dry 

 for a short while many bars and flats of inland waters. At such 

 times specimens of many littoral species may be found alive and 

 perfect, and localities may be explored which are inaccessible in 

 ordinary circumstances. Old pilings of wood or cement and clumps of 

 living and dead oyster shells should be examined; logs and stones 

 turned over; but always and everywhere any object that has been 



