Rumphella is common on lagoon, pinnacle and seaward reefs. It was once more common in the southern Kwajalein Atoll, but was subjected to heavy collection pressure from sport divers in the 1960s and 1970s. The brown leathery skin (the living animal tissue) covers a shiny black skeleton and divers thought they were collecting valuable black coral. I remember scuba club dives using 40 passenger work boats that would return to the island with the boat's hard top covered in piles of collected (and somewhat stinky) bushes. The species is still plentiful in the mid atoll, but it has taken quite a few years for it to recolonize the southern atoll. It is preyed upon by three species of the ovulid shell Naviculavolva.
Created 26 October 2020
Updated 21 October 2023