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  • José H. Leal

Shell of the Week: The Adams Scale Snail

For the moment, Cochliolepis adamsii (P. Fischer, 1857) is the last in a long series of species of the family Tornidae covered in this column. It is also, in my opinion, one of the more elegant species of that micromollusk family, with its low-profile, disk-shaped shell. The sculpture consists of fine spiral lines, the umbilicus (“hole” on the bottom of the shell) is large, and is not closed by a callus. The aperture is slanted and the outer lip thin. The color is milk-white, opaque. The shell in the photos was collected in the 1960s at the East End of Sanibel Island by Alice Anders, donated to the Museum by Lois Dunnam, and identified by Harry G. Lee.


The Adams Scale Snail, Cochliolepis adamsii. Photos by James F. Kelly.
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