Nerita — Nerita
Nerita Hans Hillewaert ( Lycaon ), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY SA 2.5

Shell · Genus

Nerita

Nerites

Nerites (Nerita) are small, thick, rounded intertidal snails with a toothed aperture and a calcareous operculum, in bold black-and-white or coloured patterns; the bleeding tooth Nerita peloronta of the Caribbean is the best known. They are abundant beach shells, cheap and robust. Freshwater neritids (Neritina, Clithon) are aquarium snails.

HabitatRocky intertidal, tropical and subtropical
RegionsIndo-Pacific, Caribbean, West Africa
FamilyNeritidae
Authority (WoRMS)Linnaeus, 1758· WoRMS / MolluscaBase
Status (WoRMS)accepted· WoRMS / MolluscaBase
Classification (WoRMS)Animalia › Mollusca › Gastropoda › Cycloneritida › Neritidae· WoRMS / MolluscaBase

CITES and protection

Not CITES-listed.

Care (Byne's disease)

Stable.

Elsewhere

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Nerita" (Shell family). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/shells/nerita. Accessed 2026-09-20.

@misc{stratum-nerita,
  title        = {Nerita},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/shells/nerita}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Shell family article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, worms, wikidata, commons. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
}

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.