Scaphella junonia explained

Scaphella junonia, common names the junonia, or Juno's volute,^[1] is a species of large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Volutidae, the volutes.

This species lives in water from 29 m to 126 m depth in the tropical Western Atlantic. Because of its deepwater habitat, the shell usually only washes up onto beaches after strong storms, or hurricanes.

The species is named after the ancient Roman goddess Juno.

Distribution

Scaphella junonia is found throughout Florida to Texas and the Gulf of Mexico.

• A subspecies, Scaphella junonia johnstoneae, is found off of Alabama and is the state shell of that state.^[2] It is named for Kathleen Yerger Johnstone, an amateur conchologist from Alabama who published two books on seashell collecting.^[3]
• Another subspecies, Scaphella junonia butleri, is found off of the Yucatan.

Shell description

The largest recorded shell of Scaphella junonia is 154 mm in length.^[4] The shell is cream in color with about 12 spiral rows of somewhat squarish brown dots. The large protoconch is tan. The aperture of the shell is almost 3/4 of the length of the shell.

Human relevance

The shell was historically greatly prized for its beauty and apparent rarity. It is however commonly taken (accidentally as bycatch) from deeper water during commercial trawling by shrimp fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico. This source provides plenty of specimens for the shell trade, and so the price of a specimen shell is relatively low. However, the shell is still very hard to find naturally cast up on beaches, so people who find a junonia while shelling on Sanibel Island, Florida, often get their picture in the local newspapers.

References

Citations

Bibliography

• Conchologists of America, Peter Dance article on this species
• Rosenberg, G. 1992. Encyclopedia of Seashells. Dorset: New York. 224 pp. page(s): 99
• Bail, P & Poppe, G. T. 2001. A conchological iconography: a taxonomic introduction of the recent Volutidae. Hackenheim-Conchbook, 30 pp, 5 pl.
• Rosenberg, G., F. Moretzsohn, and E. F. García. 2009. Gastropoda (Mollusca) of the Gulf of Mexico, Pp. 579–699 in Felder, D.L. and D.K. Camp (eds.), Gulf of Mexico–Origins, Waters, and Biota. Biodiversity. Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas.

Further reading

• Book: Rare Shells . S. Peter Dance . 1969 . University of California Press . Berkeley and Los Angeles.

Notes and References

1. Book: Shell Album . Helen S. O'Brien. . 1953 . 10 . O'Brien Color Studio . Fort Myers, Florida.
2. Web site: Alabama Shell . Official Symbols and Emblems of Alabama . 2019-05-07 . February 6, 2014 . Alabama Department of Archives and History .
3. News: Bruer . Frank . 1990-01-11 . Mobile senator makes push to get an official state shell . 1 . Birmingham Post-Herald . 2023-06-07 . Newspapers.com.
4. Web site: World's Largest Junonia . 2021-08-25 . August 11, 2017 .