Here’s an interesting find in a tidepool from this morning. It had the same texture as a whelk egg case, but a different shape. The whole cluster was only about 2 inches long, and was resting right at the edge of a tidepool. This is a banded tulip egg case: fasciolaria hunteria. According to Rupert and Fox in Seashore Animals of the Southeast: A Guide to Common Shallow-Water Invertebrates of the Southeastern Atlantic Coast
…they are carnivores which prey on other mollusks, including oysters. The thick sculptured tip of these snails is used to chip a hole in the prey’s shell, through which the proboscis is inserted.
This egg case has several perfectly circular openings through which the young snails emerged. (look at the lower right end of the top photo.) Each cluster is made up of individual egg cases which are joined together. Almost all of the banded tulips we have found have been inhabited by hermit crabs.
These are beautiful!
Wow! Wish we were there! Thanks for sharing your knowledge! Fantastic!
That is so cool!
cannot wait to visit Dewees and check out the tidal pools
What a font of wisdom U R. Callahan knows it sll now
Rachel Carson in The Edge of the Sea mentions the egg case of the banded tulip shell…great read.
Lots of live banded tulips at low tide on Sanibel this week, many of them laying their egg cases.