Whimsical World Of Worm Shells
WORM SHELLS don’t follow any rules of symmetry or structure as they twist and stretch in all kinds of crazy ways doin’ their own thang- that’s why I love them so much. No two are alike!
That’s also why I love to use them in art projects like the large shell mirror in the top photo and for mermaid locks of hair.
And for smaller frames…
In Southwest Florida, we have a few different kinds of WORM SHELLS that wash up on our beaches although I never really think about their differences… Im just always thrilled to find any WORM SHELL but I think it’s time I show you the differences.
Here are the 3 varieties of WORM SHELLS we have in our area. In the next photo from left to right… VARIABLE WORM SHELL, FARGO WORM SHELL, FLORIDA WORM SHELL
You’ve seen me post WORM SHELLS a million times but I don’t think I ever even say “FARGO WORM SHELL”. I always think “WORMIE!” so who cares what kind- haha. So yes, this is the FARGO WORM SNAIL – Vermicularia fargoi – which comes in many various color forms.
These little cutie shellooties are the FLORIDA WORM SHELL – Vermicularia knorrii – (or KNORR’S WORM SNAIL). Look at those sweet little white tips!
Just so you can see the differences in size of the FARGOs and FLORIDAs…
WORM SHELLS are even fun when they are broken too. Sanibel local sheller Cherry uses them to make wooden plaques with her granddaughters’ names on them… Ella and Grace.
These are THE cutest!!!
There’s another type of WORM SHELL… the VARIABLE WORM SHELL- Petaloconchus varians. This is the one I call WORM ROCK because it really doesn’t look like a snail shell but instead it looks like a big ol’ hunk of rock or dark CORAL. Theses snails can grow into large colonies which look similar to CORAL REEF structures.
The wonderful, whimsical world of WORM SHELLS. Be still my heart.
PS- To see all of the different places that we’ve found WORM SHELLS and more photos of them, CLICK HERE and scroll down through all of the pages of posts.
Come with me on a Shelling Adventure and maybe we will find some together.
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When The Seashells Come Rolling In
The islands get happy. The strong winds and rain that belted the islands the past few days are paying off with seashells! The shells are rolling in and piling up all along the beaches of Captiva. The first person I saw this morning was Michelle from Toronto with her 2 huge LIGHTNING WHELKS…
Look at this huge ALPHABET CONE and KING’S CROWN in her shell jug….
Then I heard a “Woohoo!” from somebody. It was Lois from PA …
with a perfectly beautiful SCOTCH BONNET in her hand…
Okay, this is really cool. Get this….She told me she has been shelling for 40 years and that she has kept a life list of shells she has found. She has 347 different types of shells on her life list. You hear that yall? You can start counting your shell finds to have a shell life list of your own if you want.
Charity from Ohio was finding lots of WHELKS…
Get a load of this big honkin chunk-a CORAL she found too…
Joyce from Long Island, NY shows us her FLORIDA CONE and big shell bag filled with goodies.
Look at Loretta from Texas with her great piece of WORM ROCK (and her cutie iLoveShelling hat!!!) …
photo by Diana Taylor
I saw great shells along every stretch of beach on Captiva today and heard that someone found a nice size LION’S PAW right in front of Captiva Island Yacht Club. I also heard the Sanibel was rocking too!
I haven’t even gone through all of my photos or much less taken photos of my own finds from today but I will hopefully get to that tomorrow….if I’m not too busy finding new treasures! Enjoy the shelling whether you are on the coast or doing a little fun cybershelling.
Yee Haw, A Lion’s Paw!
As soon as I saw this huge LION’S PAW, I wanted to grab it and run down the beach. Unfortunately for me, I had to remain calm and admire it in the hands of the guy who found it… Bob from California.
He couldn’t believe his luck when he found it on a sand bar off West Gulf Drive this morning. He pointed out the nodules were broken off but then we all said “who cares!”. That’s a fantastic find.
Congrats, Bob!
I also saw local sheller Liz with some killer finds of her own… a FLORIDA CONE, TRUE TULIP, FLAT SCALLOP and a perfect SCOTCH BONNET with great color.
I think the cooler weather was bringing lots of the locals to the beach this weekend. We saw our friend Jean collecting COCKLE shells to line a walking path in her yard. Good idea!
Shelling guide Louise Alt from Waterwoman Adventures was shelling with her trusty first mate Darla. I always love to run into Louise!
Jane was shelling off East Gulf Drive for black SCALLOPS to make a frame for her husband John’s picture…
Darlene (Pine Island) found this 7 inch LIGHTNING WHELK on the sand bar at Blind Pass…
Barbara from Long Island, NY had just gotten started shelling for the day and found a nice SHARKS EYE…
April from PA loves the WORM ROCK like I do…
Yep, I can say “Yee Haw!” for Bob and all of the other successful shellers this weekend. There were some mighty good seashells out there for the pickin’. :)
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Another Sanibel Cyber Shelling Adventure
I found that CARRIER SHELL I showed you on my last post Carried Away By A Carrier Shell but since I was so excited, I didn’t get to show you the rest of the shells I found. Aren’t the beautiful? It was an amazing day.
But wait, I’ve got a shell pile for you cyber shellers out there! I promise, I did not touch one thing in this pile before I took the next picture. But be careful! If you click on this photo to enlarge it, you might have a little sensory overload. Use caution, please.
OMG I just looked at that photo again! I missed another CONE!!! Did you spot it? TWO cones…. and I just looked again- maybe THREE. I worked this pile a while so I could have gotten it on another swipe but I definitely didn’t get it on the first run. I guess I was gathering every ounce of patience not to pluck this WORMIE, CANDIE and ALPHIE (notice the ultra cuteness clue of the “ie”endings) off the beach so I could take the picture.
So just a few minutes after finding this little seashell honey hole, I found the CARRIER SHELL and had to do a video. I hope you can see some of the other shells in that “troth” (I don’t think I’ve ever called it that before, but it sure did seem like one- LOL).
Oh yeah, something else cool…there was a live four legged BRITTLE STAR in one of the tidal pools.
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This Weekend Rocked
My friend Diane joined Clark and me on the beach off West Gulf Drive yesterday for a lovely afternoon of shell seeking. We wanted to find a big WHELK like last week but she was just as happy with a candy HORSIE CONCH.
She was even happier to find 9 BABY’S EARS…
Then to top it all off she framed her Sanibel Six in a very creative MANGROVE SEED POD picture frame.
I met another blog buddy Candice from St Pete! She saw Clark with his shelling backhoe and asked him “Are you Clark?” LOL
She said she wasn’t finding much, so I walked with her just for a few minutes and we found a few goodies… 3 ALTERNATE TELLINS, a PURPLISH TAGELUS, COQUINA, FALSE ANGEL WING, 2 CONCHS, a LACE MUREX, a TURBAN and a beautiful BABY’S EAR.
All of Candice’s shells were found on the high and dry wrack line on the far right of this next picture. On the sand bars, there were hundreds of FIGHTING CONCHS and a few bigger shells…
Aha! That’s where the big WHELK was that we were looking for. Jennifer (Sanibel) had already found that prize AND three ALPHIES!
Nice finds, Jennifer!
Clark didn’t find another big WHELK but he did find a huuu-jahh piece of WORM ROCK. He knows this is another fave of mine. It doesn’t look like anything fabulous in this photo but trust me, it’s cool. This is a rock formed by a colony of VARIABLE WORM SNAILS (not exactly the same thing as my “wormie shells” we find) and it’s not every day for us to find it this big.
Look at it close up…
Rock on and have a happy Monday!
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