Maria’s Tegula Shell, Tegula mariana

Maria’s Tegula Shell, Tegula mariana. Shell provided by the commercial fishermen of the greater Los Cabos area, Baja California Sur, April 2018. Size: 1.3 cm (0.5 inches) in diameter.

Maria’s Tegula, Tegula mariana (Dall, 1919), is a gastropod mollusk that is a member of the Tegulidae Family of Tops. The shells are low with four or five whorls with a circular profile. The shells exterior is sculpted by fine lines following the spiral with some of these lines are marked with fine nodes. The base has a waxy appearance and the umbilicus is deep. The exterior of the shell is gray to light brown in color, with reddish-brown mottling; the area around the umbilicus is green; the interior is whitish. Maria’s Tegula Shells reach a maximum of 1.6 cm (0.6 inches) in diameter.

Maria’s Tegulas are found attached to, and under, rocks in the intertidal zone to depths up to 65 feet. They are found throughout the Sea of Cortez, and south to Peru, however, they have not been documented from the West Coast of Baja.

A synonym is Omphalius marianus.