Key identification features
·Nucella lapillus Centre image.
·Usual max. height 45mm (to 65mm sublittorally).
·Shell usually whitish 07 Nucella lapillus. Menai Strait, Wales. September 2011. , or yellowish 12 Nucella lapillus. Height 30mm. Mouth of Mersey Estuary, England. July 2014. , some have colour bands 18 Nucella lapillus. Height 32mm. N. Devon, England. April 1985. Coll. J. Light. & flic.kr/p/oo3ZVh . No periostracum except on juveniles <3mm high .
·Short spire and large body whorl with short siphonal canal; white siphon protrudes slightly. (Shells from sheltered shores have longer spires flic.kr/p/ooM9Ks , can resemble small Buccinum undatum.)
·Adults have thick shell with row of teeth inside outer lip of aperture 07 Nucella lapillus. Menai Strait, Wales. September 2011. . Sub-adults have thin shell and no teeth flic.kr/p/oo3ZVh .
·Common on most rocky shores in Britain around mid tide level.
Similar species
·Buccinum undatum Right image
·Up to 100mm high (only small ones likely to be confused with N. lapillus).
·Yellowish brown shell with, often thick, periostracum. Large costae (transverse ribs) curved thus: ) .
·Large body whorl has short siphonal canal; whitish siphon with black marks protrudes considerably.
·No teeth inside outer lip of aperture.
·Common sublittorally all round Britain, sometimes on shore near LWS.
·Urosalpinx cinerea Left image
·Up to 40mm high.
·Yellowish or grey shell with curved costae (transverse ribs).
·Large body whorl has short siphonal canal.
·No teeth inside outer lip of aperture.
·Alien established in Kent and Essex, some expansion of range along S. coast England, but scarce and difficult to find by 2015, introduction may be failing. On oyster beds on lower shore and sublittorally.