Family: Janthinidae, Purple Snails view all from this family

Description 1-1 1/2" (2.5-3.8 cm) wide. Round, smooth, thin, with a low spire; whitish-purple with a deep purple base. Body whorl large, slightly angled at periphery.

Habitat Suspended upside down from a frothy bubble raft on ocean surface.

Range On both coasts: south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and San Diego, California; also found worldwide in all tropical and subtropical waters.

Discussion The purple base of the Common Violet Snail may serve as camouflage from both fish and birds; from below, it appears to blend in with the sky, and from above, with the blue of the sea. The warm Gulf Stream carries these as far north as Massachusetts and England; however they cannot survive cold water and die when they encounter it. Like other species of Janthina, large numbers of these mollusks live on the open sea; but after steady, constant easterly winds, they are often found cast up in great numbers on our southern beaches. A vivid account of such an occurrence in Key West, Florida, was given by the malacologist Charles T. Simpson writing in 1897: " ... as far as the eye could see, it [the beach] was a mass of the most intense, glowing violet color ... from below low water to highest tide mark they were piled up ... over shoe-top deep."