Muricidae list

Family Muricidae

This page links to some members of the family Muricidae. Many references nowadays include what used to be called the family Thaididae within Muricidae. That would seem to be warranted, but for now, anyway, we do not show species of Thais, Morula, Drupa, or a few other of the former thaidids on these pages. Most of the muricids are primarily hard reef dwellers. In many species the shells quickly become coated with calcareous encrustations. This often helps them blend in very well with their normal surroundings, so that some species are often or even usually found exposed on the reef by day. The Chicoreus and Chicomurex, however, typically have a sponge-like red covering that appears to inhibit external encrustation, at least until the coat wears off. The presence of this red coat on most Chicoreus, especially the younger and cleaner specimens, had me thinking that it might be a kind of periostracum produced by the mollusk. Even very tiny individuals of Chicoreus brunneus, for example, bear a thick red coat. The red tends to wear away as the shells get older, allowing corals and other encrusting organism to attach to the shell, much like a periostracum wears off with age. However, we have seen channels in the red coats on some murexes that look a lot like those of sponges. If it really is a sponge, it must have a pretty tight symbiotic relationship with some of these murexes. Most of the Kwajalein murexes are fairly easily recognized, except for the Favartia. With the references we have, they are not easy to identify, so most of our IDs within that genus are tentative.

Aspella ponderi
Aspella producta
Attiliosa caledonica
Chicomurex laciniatus
Chicomurex venustulus
Chicoreus aculeatus
Chicoreus brunneus
Chicoreus ingridmariae
Chicoreus laqueatus
Chicoreus ramosus
Chicoreus saulii
Chicoreus torrefactus
Favartia brevicula
Favartia crouchi
Favartia cyclostoma
Favartia leonae
Favartia tetragona
Favartia sp. 1
Homalocantha pele
Naquetia cumingii
Naquetia triquetra
Pascula ozenneana
Phyllocoma convoluta
Pterymarchia bipinnata
Pterymarchia martinetana
Pterymarchia triptera
Pterynotus elongatus