Lettered Olive

Shell size to 65 mm; shell thick, cylindrical, with highly polished surface. Spire short. Sutures deeply incised. Aperture elongate and narrow, with notch at base. Color light-tan to light gray with darker brown, tentlike markings. Golden-yellow color variety (“citrina”) seldom found off Sanibel. The photo of a live lettered olive was taken by Amy Tripp on Marco Island, 2011. The shell on the right is a teratological lettered olive with a very long spire, collected on December 2013, on Tarpon Bay Beach, Sanibel, by the Deb and Greg Longtin. A similar specimen was found by Museum volunteer Leroy Neitzel in May 2015 on along West Gulf Drive, also on Sanibel.