Cerithidea pliculosa (Menke, 1829) Plicate Hornsnail
Distribution: Texas, Louisiana; West Indies. Size: 12 to 33 mm
Description: Color brownish-black, varices yellow or orange-yellow with a yellow band at center of each whorl; shape elongate-conic, turriculate; sculpture of 11 to 13 convex whorls; nuclear whorls usually lost as adult; axial ribs irregular, strong; spiral sculpture absent; numerous varices, a characteristic feature of mature snails; aperture subcircular, outer lip thick and forms an outer varix around the aperture; siphonal canal not well developed; operculum corneous with a central nucleus.
Habitat: Found in bay shorelines on mudflats, often near salt marsh cordgrass at depths from 0 to 2 m (7 ft).
Remarks: Juveniles without varices easily confused as ceriths. See Bequaert (1942); Andrews (1977).
Panamic Vicariant: C. albonodosa Gould and Carpenter, 1857.