Family Olividae

Shell size to 13 mm; shell slender, cylindrical, with glossy surface. Columella with numerous folds. Suture finely impressed. Color whitish, sometimes finely speckled with light-brown. Apex sometimes bluish or black. Protoconch "telescoping" into teleoconch. This species resembles Olivella prefloralia Olson & Harbison, 1953 (see Lee, 2009.) Relatively common in sheltered areas.

Shell size up to 8 mm; shell bullet-shaped, with about 5 whorls, and short spire. Apex very small. Parietal region with thin glossy callus. Outer lip relatively thick. Columella with one or two folds. Suture channeled. Color variable, usually blackish, dark-mahogany, or bluish-gray with variable patterns of darker spiral bands and faint flame-like markings. Operculum present. Very common on sandy mud flats. The dark living specimen in the additional picture was photographed by Amy Tripp on a sand bar on the eastern side of the Jolly Bridge, Naples, in November 2011.

Shell size to 5 mm; shell with relatively short spire and large apex. Parietal callus thin or absent. Columella concave. Suture narrowly channeled. Color translucent-white, sometimes with reddish-brown spiral bands.

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.

Shell size to 60 mm; this is one of the most variable species in the genus Oliva, both in color and shape. The species may show a tent-like pattern, or be partially or completely covered with a layer of reddish-brown color. The species has ample distribution in the western Atlantic, but only recently appeared on the islands of Sanibel and Captiva. The shell in the main image was collected by Kadence Newman on the Captiva side of Blind Pass, on July 2011. The shells in the additional image were collected in the past few years by Jeanne and Chuck Richards between Bowmans Beach (Sanibel) and Redfish Pass (Captiva).