Curator's Corner

Museum, research, and collection updates from Dr. José H. Leal, plus Shell of the Week, which highlights a different species every Friday. Most Shells of the Week—but not all—are found in Southwest Florida.

Dr. José H. Leal serves as the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum’s Science Director and Curator. He received his Ph.D. in Marine Biology and Fisheries from the University of Miami and has served at the Museum since 1996. Under his leadership, the Museum was awarded its first accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums in 2010.

José H. Leal

Dec 25, 2020

One Nerite, or Two?

The introduction of DNA sequencing as a taxonomic tool in the 1980s started a revolution that keeps transforming the classification of mollusks and opening the way for better species delimitations. Molecular systematics has shown time after time not only that what we believe to be separate species are just one and the same, but also that what may be perceived as a single species may actually be two or more! Take, instance, the article by Cristiane Barroso, from the Universida

José H. Leal

Dec 25, 2020

Shell of the Week: The Virgin Nerite

At 12 mm (about 0.5 inch), Vitta virginea (Linnaeus, 1758) is another small nerite with rounded, smooth shell. The parietal shield (the flat area inside aperture) is crescent-shaped, white, and may bear a number of small, irregular teeth. The shell is very variable in color; the dominant color may be black, red, green, purple, with spots, wavy or zigzag lines, and bands of alternating colors. The single shell of this species from Sanibel present in the Museum collection was c

José H. Leal

Jun 13, 2014

The Virgin Nerite

This weekly column focuses on species known to occur in or off the barrier islands of Sanibel and Captiva and nearby areas. Today I’ll make one exception and feature a nice-looking species for which there is only one local record in the extensive collection of local shells maintained by the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum. One record, a half-inch shell collected by the late Dr. Dale V. Stingley on a mangrove root in Clam Bayou, Sanibel in 1950. The species was never fo

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Curator's Corner