Beau's Vitrinella

While looking for minis at the Lighthouse Beach on Sanibel this past week, I ran across a shell I never noticed before. This little guy is a BEAU’S VITRINELLA and it’s only 3/8 of an inch big. It was near the area I was finding WENTLETRAPS, TUSKS, and BABY’S EARS so I was very focused on the small shells.

It’s a pretty little shell so I will definitely be on the lookout for more of them now that I know the shape, pattern and can call it something other than “cutie little guy that looks like a flattened tiny white button shell”.

This is what it looked like on the beach when I found the VITRINELLA.

I also found this shell that measures about an inch at the lighthouse beach. I thought it could be faded PERIWINKLE but just to be sure it wasn’t a tree snail or something, I asked my land snail friend H.L. Lori if she knew what it was. Without seeing the shell in person, she thought it looked about right to be a PERIWINKLE. Thanks, HL!

This is another view after I brought it home.

It looks like a MANGROVE PERIWINKLE, doesn’t it?

Since I’m on the seashell identification kick, I thought I’d show you this shell too. Let me make this clear… this is not a Sanibel area shell. This was a gift from Terri and Dennis who found it where they live… around the Seattle, WA area. I didn’t know what to call this one either so I asked my California shell friend Scott R. to identify it for me (thanks, Scott!). He says it’s a LEWIS MOON SNAIL and it’s the largest MOON SNAIL in the world. It’s about 4 inches wide. It’s huge!

I found a great home for it right beside the shell sculpture Carla from Love Letters From The Sea blog.

Terri and Dennis also brought quite a few SAND DOLLARS from the Pacific. They are just as beautiful as our Sanibel SAND DOLLARS but they don’t have the slits like ours. Thank you Terri and Dennis!  I found a nice home for them as well….right beside our CARIBBEAN CONCHS and other shells we found in Belize 2009 .