About Vitta virginea (Linnaeus, 1758)
Vitta virginea (Linnaeus, 1758), a colorful grass-flat snail species, has shells that reach an average size of 6–25 millimeters (0.24–0.98 inches). These snails show extremely variable patterns and colors on their shells. Their shells are semiglobular, with 3 or 4 whorls. The aperture is oval with thin lips, and the operculum is usually black. The polished shell surface may be black, grey, white, yellowish, olive, red, or purple, marked with various stripes, waves, spots, or lines. This species is widespread across the Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba, the West Indies, the Greater and Lesser Antilles, Dominica, Puerto Rico, Panama, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Brazil, Venezuela, Suriname, Colombia, Mexico, Texas, and Florida. Vitta virginea can withstand large changes in salinity, so it lives in fresh, marine, and brackish waters. These sea snails are found in rivers and streams, estuaries, the sea, brackish ponds, and mangroves, on substrates of sand, silt, and stones.
