Free Cypraea if you can identify it :) from Laguna Beach, CA

[tlamber]

There are these small wrinkled skin Cypraea.  If you know where to look and are the only one on the beach, you'll find one every 7 full days of shell collecting.  They are quite rare.

We call them coffee beans.  I once saw a live one in a tide pool.

Everywhere I look says that the chestnut cowrie is the only type of cypraea on the west coast of US, however there is another one that the internet does not have any mention of.  Maybe it is not a cypraea, but it sure looks like one from the top and bottom.

If you scroll to the bottom of this picture you will see it.  

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I have found a few of them myself... and because i have such a liking for them have traded lots of other rare beach shells with fellow Laguna Beach shellers for more.

If you can identify it, I'll mail you one!

Also, there is a yellow limpit - the old ladies remember them from decades ago and call them lemon drops, it is the rarest shell on the beach.  I've only found one and am very lucky for that.  If you can identify that shell, I'll also send you a wrinkled skin cypraea!

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