Shell · Family (volutidae)
Cymbiola
Volutes
Volutes (Volutidae: Cymbiola, Voluta, Amoria, Melo, Cymbium) are large, glossy, richly patterned snails with columellar folds, the Australian Amoria and Cymbiola species being a specialist field with rare species selling for thousands. The bailer shell Melo is the giant of the family. Pattern, gloss and locality drive value, and deep-water species are often trawler-collected.
| Habitat | Sand bottoms, mostly Indo-Pacific and Australia, shallow to deep |
|---|---|
| Regions | Australia, Indo-Pacific, Caribbean, West Africa |
| Family | Volutidae |
| Authority (WoRMS) | Rafinesque, 1815· WoRMS / MolluscaBase |
| Status (WoRMS) | accepted· WoRMS / MolluscaBase |
| Extinct (WoRMS) | no· WoRMS / MolluscaBase |
| Classification (WoRMS) | Animalia › Mollusca › Gastropoda › Neogastropoda › Volutidae· WoRMS / MolluscaBase |
CITES and protection
Not CITES-listed; Australia restricts collecting in marine parks and several deep-water volutes are trawl by-catch.
Care (Byne's disease)
Glossy shells susceptible to Byne's; store in inert boxes.
Elsewhere
- WoRMS AphiaID: 23141
- Wikidata: Q3008712
- WoRMS / MolluscaBase record
- Wikipedia: Cymbiola
- CITES Appendices
Cite this article
Stratum Strata. "Cymbiola" (Shell family). Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21. https://stratum.black/strata/shells/cymbiola. Accessed 2026-09-21.
@misc{stratum-cymbiola,
title = {Cymbiola},
author = {{Stratum Strata}},
howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/strata/shells/cymbiola}},
year = {2026},
note = {Shell family article, Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21; sources: stratum, worms, wikidata, commons. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
} Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.