Shell · Genus
Janthina
Violet snails
Violet snails (Janthina) float upside down on rafts of mucus bubbles and feed on by-the-wind sailors, and their paper-thin purple shells wash ashore after storms on beaches from Florida to Britain. They are free beach finds but rarely intact. The genus is now placed in the wentletrap family.
| Habitat | Pelagic, floating on a bubble raft at the ocean surface |
|---|---|
| Regions | Worldwide warm oceans |
| Family | Epitoniidae |
| Authority (WoRMS) | Röding, 1798· WoRMS / MolluscaBase |
| Status (WoRMS) | accepted· WoRMS / MolluscaBase |
| Extinct (WoRMS) | no· WoRMS / MolluscaBase |
| Classification (WoRMS) | Animalia › Mollusca › Gastropoda › Caenogastropoda incertae sedis › Epitoniidae· WoRMS / MolluscaBase |
CITES and protection
Not CITES-listed.
Care (Byne's disease)
Extremely thin and fragile; store in cotton wool.
Elsewhere
- WoRMS AphiaID: 138092
- Wikidata: Q3168326
- WoRMS / MolluscaBase record
- Wikipedia: Janthina
- CITES Appendices
Cite this article
Stratum Strata. "Janthina" (Shell family). Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21. https://stratum.black/strata/shells/janthina. Accessed 2026-09-21.
@misc{stratum-janthina,
title = {Janthina},
author = {{Stratum Strata}},
howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/strata/shells/janthina}},
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.