Shell of the Week: The Left-handed Melampus
The Left-handed Melampus, Blauneria heteroclita Montagu, 1808, is an unusual gastropod found in mangrove areas of the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the southeastern United States. Its sinistral (left-handed) shell reaches about 5 mm (0.2 inch), is slender, bullet-shaped, with a glossy surface (when well-preserved), covered with microscopic growth lines. The Left-handed Melampus belongs to the family Ellobiidae, a group of air-breathing (pulmonate) snails that evolved to