Nerita sp

[paul monfils]

Nerites are a nightmare!  I believe this shell is in the genus Clithon.  I just visited the Neritopsine Gastropod website, which is the most thorough source on Neritidae and related families that I know of.  They picture more than 40 species of Clithon!  All of them are pretty much the same shape and size, and most of them show a broad range of color and pattern within the species.  Out the 40+ species shown, your shell "could be" 20 of them!  Arggghhh!!!  This is a job for a specialist. Like Tom Eichhorst. Tom is a specialist in Neritidae, and made or verified many of the ID's on this website. I wouldn't normally give out personal contact information online, but Tom is the editor of American Conchologist, and his email address is provided on the inside front cover of each issue of the magazine, so it should be okay to pass it along: thomas@nerite.com

The website: http://neritopsine.lifedesks.org/