Chicoreus torrefactus (Sowerby, 1841)
91.7mm

Chicoreus torrefactus is found on the seaward reef, as well as on various lagoon reefs and pinnacles. They are typically under rocks or in small ledges or caves at night. Like the other Chicoreus, shells are often coated with a red sponge-like material, although it seems to wear off more often in this species than in the similar C. saulii. One easy way to distinguish these two species is that the columella is lightly stained with orange in C. torrefactus and the outer edge of the aperture is tinged with lavender in C. saulii.

At Enewetak Atoll, C. torrefactus could often be found in a yellow color form, although the yellow ones were still outnumbered by the normal black and brown ones. At Kwajalein, the yellow form is very rare, known from only a couple of specimens.

The orange coat has mostly worn off the shell below.

This one appeared to be drilling into a large Acrosterigma orbita. Maybe just a little too optimistic.

An empty juvenile.

Created 1 October 2010
Updated 17 March 2020

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