Tiny snail ID

[ptychoptera]

Collected in Hawaii. 3mm or so in length. Any ideas?

 

[pagojoe]

I had an idea, but I don't have any of my references with me, and all the pics I can find on the net that look similar are either Caribbean or east Atlantic/Mediterranean species. It looks like a Planaxis species, but the ones I've collected in Hawaii showed more white and less black, and none had the almost totally black shoulder. The aperture looks a little wrong for that family, even after flipping the mirror image. Did you collect it on the rocks in the splash zone, or did it come from scuba depth?

Cheers,



Don

 

[ptychoptera]

It hitched in on some rocks I collected in shallow (1-2ft) water. At low tide the area is essentially a gigantic tide pool, but at high tide it has quite heavy surf.

They seem to be very abundant, as the hermits there quite frequently inhabit them. Just about every square inch of substrate has a hermit in one of these shells.

I'll try and get a better photo tomorrow. Cheers.