Flamingo tongue snail
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Photo] Flamingo Tongue Snail (Cyphoma gibbosum). "I think these Flamingo Tongue Snails (Cyphoma gibbosum) are so beautiful. But I am sometimes sickened to see how much damage they do to the gorgonians they dine on. Well, they've gotta eat!". Date April 4, 2000. Author LASZLO ILYES (http://www.flickr.com/people/laszlo-photo/) from Cleveland, Ohio, USA

The flamingo tongue snail, Cyphoma gibbosum is a marine gastropod, or sea snail, which lives in the tropical waters of the Western Atlantic. It is about one inch (25 mm) long, and it can be observed on various species of soft corals, on which it both lives and feeds. When alive the snail appears orange-yellow in color with black markings. However, this color is only due to the thin flaps of mantle tissue which in life usually cover the plain white, or yellowish-white shell.

The flamingo tongue snail has a shell (which distinguishing it from brightly-colored nudibranchs), but the shell is usually not visible, because as mentioned above, it is covered by the colorful but thin layer of mantle tissue. The mantle can be retracted, exposing the shell, but this usually happens only when the animal is attacked.

This species used to be very common, but it has become rather uncommon because of over-collecting by snorkelers and scuba divers, who make the mistake of thinking that the color is in the shell of the animal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamingo_tongue_snail

The text in this page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article shown in above URL. It is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.