Page:American Seashells (1954).djvu/183

Rh About 1 inch in length; thin-shelled but strong. First two or three whorls smooth, remainder with many fine, spiral grooves. Last whorl sometimes carinate. Color variable—whitish, yellowish or orange- to red-brown with darker, wavy, vertical, oblique stripes. Columella pale purplish with whitish edges. Operculum pale-brown. Common in mangrove areas where the waters are calm and brackish. It is found high above the high-tide mark clinging to wharf pilings, and is often seen on the trunks and branches of mangrove trees. Introduced to the Pacific side of the Panama Canal. L. scabra Linné is from the Indo-Pacific.

$1/3$ to $1/2$ inch in length, equally wide, with a low spire; smoothish. Color variable but usually a uniform, bright, brownish yellow or orange-yellow. Sometimes with a white or brown spiral band. Columella whitish. Operculum bright yellow to orange-brown. This is L. palliata Say. A common coastal species associated with rockweeds.

$1/4$ inch in length, somewhat shaped like obtusata. Characterized by its dark-brown periostracum, glossy-brown columella and aperture, by its tiny, chink-like umbilicus, and by the presence, in some specimens, of rows of small, round blackish spots. Common in “splash-pools” from high-tide line to 6 or 7 feet above.

$1/4$ to $1/2$ inch in length, resembling a “distorted, small L. littorea.” Adults characterized by poorly developed, smoothish, fine spiral cords. Color drab gray to dark-brown. Interior of aperture chocolate-brown. Females give birth to live, shelled young. Often found with L. obtusata, but not so common. This is L. rudis Maton and L. groenlandica Menke.