Southwest Florida Shells

by José H. Leal

Family Ostreidae

Ostrea equestris

(Say, 1834)

Crested Oyster

Shell size to 50 mm; shell outline ovate, otherwise very variable. Edge of lower valve raised and crenulated. Edge of upper valve with fine denticles. Muscle scar central. Color gray, sometimes with greenish tinges. Interior of shell nacreous, grayish to greenish. Ostrea stentina Payraudeau, 1826 is restricted to the eastern Atlantic.