Naria helvola (Linnaeus, 1758)
Honey cowry or Strawberry, 10-32mm

Naria helvola is a common species in the Marshall Islands, where it occupies a wide variety of habitats. The largest numbers of specimens are seen under rocks on the intertidal reef, or in shallow lagoon reef and pinnacle habitats, but they can also be found quite easily on the seaward reef. They also commonly live among Halimeda algae plants on sandy lagoon reefs. Specimens live at depths from 0 to at least 20 meters and probably deeper. The shells vary somewhat across this species' wide Indo-Pacific range and Naria helvola has been broken up into three geographic subspecies, and the one found in the Marshalls is Naria helvola helvola. The first specimen below is crawling across some purple sponge on the undersurface of a rock.

The mantle makes the shell hard to see.

The individual below was brooding a freshly deposited egg mass. Each of those cream-colored capsules under the shell contains a number of developing cowry larvae. When ready to hatch, they will drift away and spend the first part of their lives floating as plankton.

Below, a pair, one with the mantle partly extended, crawl across the undersurface of a shallow water rock.

The empty shells below illustrate some of the variation in color pattern. First is a 16.75mm shell found in 1973.

25.9mm, 1982

11.7mm, 28 June 1998

22.85mm, 1 January 2005

The oddly colored specimen below measured 19.2mm, found on 2 January 2000.

Created 1 April 2008
Updated 3 April 2024

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