Lettered olive

Lettered olive
Three shells of the lettered olive
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Order:	Neogastropoda
(unranked):	clade Caenogastropoda clade Hypsogastropoda clade Neogastropoda
Superfamily:	Olivoidea
Family:	Olividae
Subfamily:	Olivinae
Genus:	Oliva
Species:	O. sayana
Binomial name
Oliva sayana Ravenel, 1834
Synonyms[1]
Oliva litterata Lamarck, 1811 Strephona litterata (Lamarck, 1811) Oliva citrina C. W. Johnson, 1911 Oliva maya Petuch & Sargent, 1986 Oliva contoyensis Petuch, 1988

The lettered olive, Oliva sayana, is a species of large predatory sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Olividae, the olive shells, olive snails, or olives.

Subspecies

Oliva sayana contains the following subspecies:^[2]

• Oliva sayana sarasotensis Petuch & Sargent, 1986
• Oliva sayana sayana Ravenel, 1834
• Oliva sayana texana Petuch & Sargent, 1986

Distribution

The species' range is from North Carolina to Florida and the Gulf states of North America, ingluding Louisiana and Texas; It also occurs in Mexico, including Campeche State, Yucatán State and Quintana Roo^[1], and may also occur in Brazil.^{[citation needed]}

Habitat

The lettered olive typically lives in near-shore waters, on shallow sand flats near inlets. The empty shell is occasionally, or sometimes commonly, washed up onto ocean beaches.^{[citation needed]}

Shells of Oliva sayana

Shells of Oliva sayana

Shell description

The shell of this species can be about 6 cm (2½ in) long (maximum reported size reaches 9.1 cm^[1]). It is a smooth, shiny, cylindrical-shaped shell with a short spire. The aperture is narrow and extending almost the length of shell, continuing around the bottom and ending in a notch on the other side. The suture is V-cut and deep. The lower part of the whorl is just above where the suture extends outward and then at a sharp shoulder drops into the suture.

The shell coloration can vary from cream to a greyish exterior with reddish-brown zigzag markings. The common name of this species is derived from the darker surface markings that sometimes resemble letters.

Life habits

This olive, like all olives, is a carnivore: it captures bivalves and small crustaceans with its foot and takes them below the sand surface to digest.^{[citation needed]}

Its presence is sometimes detected at very low tides by the trails it leaves when it crawls below the surface on semi-exposed sand flats.^{[citation needed]}

Females lay floating, round egg capsules that are often found in beach drift. Young are free swimming.^{[citation needed]}

Human use

Colonists and early Native Americans made jewelry from these shells.^{[citation needed]}

The lettered olive is the state shell of South Carolina.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Malacolog 4.1.1: Western Atlantic Mollusk Species Database. Retrieved April 2010.
2. ^ Oliva sayana Ravenel, 1834.  Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=208387  on 26 April 2010.

• Lettered Olive
• NC Sea Grant