Family Ellobiidae

Shell size to 4 mm; shell small, globose, solid, resembling a minute moon snail. Last whorl comprises most of the shell, spire small. Sculpture of 20-30 spiral cordlets of irregular size. Outer lip with one fold that continues along inner surface of aperture. Parietal region with three tooth-like folds, the adapical (upper) one very well developed. Color light-brown with parietal region and aperture white. Found near brackish water.

Shell size to 16 mm; shell ovate-conical, thin, bullet-shaped, widest at posterior (upper) third. Spire low. Aperture about ¾ of shell length. Columella with two folds, one larger. Outer lip smooth, but inner surface of aperture with about 12 raised spiral lines. Color mahogany-brown, with one broad, whitish spiral band below suture. Lives on marshy areas/mud flats.

Shell size to 20 mm; shell ovate-conical, widest at posterior third, more angled at shoulder and base than M. bidentatus. Columella with two folds. Outer lip thin, internally ribbed. Color reddish-brown, usually with 2-3 broad, cream bands. Found on Mangrove roots and mud flats. The additional images show a large aggregation of Coffee Melampus on a red mangrove branch. Those two images were taken by Lorin Buckner in South Fort Myers, in 2017.

Shell size to 12 mm; shell elongate for family, widest at middle of last whorl. Apex pimple-like, white. Shell surface glossy. Columella with single fold. Aperture about ½ of shell length. Color coffee-brown with several white axial bands. The additional illustration shows a juvenile shell. Photos by José H Leal.

Shell size to 13 mm; shell ovate-conical, thin, bullet-shaped, widest at posterior (upper) third. Spire low. Aperture about ¾ of shell length. Columella with two folds. Outer lip with 1-4 denticles. Color brown or grayish-brown, with 3-5 darker brown bands. Animal reddish-brown. Lives on marshy areas/mud flats. Shell collected by Sanibel School student Claire Minoui. The secondary picture shows a less common local variation with smaller number of narrower brown stripes.

Shell size to 22 mm; shell ovate-conical, thin, light. Sculpture of faint growth lines. Aperture more than half length of shell, rounded at base. Columella with two folds. Periostracum thin, brown. Color white. Found mainly in mangrove areas, may wash up on Gulf beaches.

Shell up to 3.5 mm, oval-elongate, translucent, very fragile, thin, with a glossy surface and no perceptible sculpture. The aperture is large, and typically bears two columellar plaits, or "teeth," with the posterior ("top") tooth twice as large as the anterior one. The shell color is variable, generally translucent amber, light-brown, or light-yellow. The Amber Melampus is another local member of the Ellobiidae, a family of air-breathing snails. It may be found in mangroves and in the area immediately above the high tide line in quiet bays with sandy-mud bottoms. The shell in the photo was found by Jim Scatterday in January 2019, beneath the bark of red mangrove trees on the east end of Sanibel Island. Photos by James F. Kelly.

Shell to 5 mm, sinistral, slender, bullet-shaped, with a glossy surface (when well-preserved), covered with microscopic growth lines. The Left-handed Melampus belongs to the family Ellobiidae, a group of air-breathing (pulmonate) snails that evolved to inhabit areas very close to high tide line, without actually living in sea water. The species was first collected on Sanibel in January 2019 by Jim Scatterday, who found individuals living under the bark of red mangroves, in a small community that includes other ellobiids, truncatellid gastropods, and isopod crustaceans. Main photo by James F. Kelly.