Mexican Jewel Box Shell, Charma buddiana

Mexican Jewel Box Shell, Charma buddiana. Shell collected off the beach of Punta Chivato, Baja California Sur, July 2023. Size: 7.6 cm (3.0 inches) x 6.4 cm (2.5 inches). Collection, photographs and identification courtesy of Colin Campbell, DVM, Punta Chivato.

The Mexican Jewel Box, Chama buddiana (C.B. Adams, 1852), is a bivlave mollusk that is a member of the Chamidae Family of Jewel Boxes. They are known in Mexico as almeja joyero de Mexicano. The shell is chunky and irregular in shape with the exterior surface being covered with short, irregular spines; the margin is finely crenate. The shell has a dark red exterior with small and large white spines set in irregular rows and the shell has a red outer margin. The interior of the shell is white with a pink band near the margin. The Mexican Jewel Box Shell reach a maximum of 12.5 cm (4.9 inches) in length and 10.5 cm (4.1 inches) in height.

The Mexican Jewel Boxes are attached to rocks and coral, via its left valve, in the intertidal zone to depths up to 90 m (295 feet). In Mexican waters they are found in Pacific from Bahia de Choya, Sonora within the Sea of Cortez southward to Guatemala; they are absent from along the west coast of Baja. They’re known range is unknown and poorly established. The Mexican Jewel Box is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, growth, longevity, movement patterns, diet, habitat use, and reproduction.

The Mexican Jewel Box is very similar to the Violet Oyster, Chama coralloides (lacks the pink band near the margin).