Erosaria poraria (Linnaeus, 1758)
Porous cowry or Grape, 10-29mm

Erosaria poraria is a shallow water shell found commonly from the intertidal reef to depths of about 10m on both lagoon and seaward reefs. It is fairly abundant under large boulders on the tops of large flat-topped pinnacle reefs such as those near Kwadak Island. On the seaward reef, it is often seen at night among the branches of dead branch corals growing on the reef flat above the steep seaward slope. This species has a wide distribution throughout most of the Indo-Pacific.

A pair live on the sponge-encrusted undersurface of a large rock.

The shell below was covering a mass of pink egg capsules. Each capsule contains a number of developing cowry larvae.

Undisturbed specimens at night may extend their pointed and slightly branched papillae way out, as in the specimen below from Hawaii.

Created 1 April 2008
Updated 15 December 2011

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