About Margarites helicinus (Phipps, 1774)
The shell of Margarites helicinus ranges in size from 3 mm to 11 mm. This thin, umbilicate shell has a depressed conoidal shape. It is flesh-colored, with paler coloring at the periphery and below the suture, fading to a corneous color around the umbilicus. The shell surface is very bright, shining, polished, and smooth, with the exception of fine, nearly indistinct concentric lines that run around the umbilicus. The spire is conoidal. The apex is small and obtuse. The suture is impressed. The shell holds approximately 5 convex whorls; the final whorl widens very rapidly and curves somewhat downward toward the aperture. The rounded aperture is oblique, angular at the upper edge, and nacreous on the interior. Pearly iridescence can often be seen through the shell itself. The narrow umbilicus is deep. Its opening is regularly curved, and is not separated from the base by a carina. This marine species is found near the seashore. It occurs in circum-arctic waters, the North Atlantic, and European waters; it also ranges from the Bering Strait to California, USA, and is present in the Sea of Okhotsk.
