Wentletrap and Violet Snails
Epitoniidae
Wentletraps are small, often white, very high-spired, predatory or ectoparasitic sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Epitoniidae. The family Epitoniidae belongs to the superfamily Epitonioidea. Since 2017 this family also includes the former families Janthinidae (the pelagic purple snails) and Nystiellidae, all part of the informal group Ptenoglossa. Epitoniidae is a rather large family, with an estimated number of species about 630.
The word wentletrap originated in Dutch (wenteltrap), and it means spiral staircase. These snails are sometimes also called "staircase shells", and "ladder shells".
42 branches of this family, most-observed first
Violet Snails
genusJanthina
Epitonium
genusEpitonium
Opalia
genusOpalia
Gyroscala
genusGyroscala
Epidendrium
genusEpidendrium
Cirsotrema
genusCirsotrema
Cycloscala
genusCycloscala
Acrilla
genusAcrilla
Amaea
genusAmaea
Epifungium
genusEpifungium
Boreoscala
genusBoreoscala
Surrepifungium
genusSurrepifungium
Recluzia
genusRecluzia
Alexania
genusAlexania
Globiscala
genusGlobiscala
Acirsa
genusAcirsa
Murdochella
genusMurdochella
Cylindriscala
genusCylindriscala
Narvaliscala
genusNarvaliscala
Librariscala
genusLibrariscala
Papuliscala
genusPapuliscala
Iphitus
genusIphitus
Eccliseogyra
genusEccliseogyra
Opaliopsis
genusOpaliopsis
Gregorioiscala
genusGregorioiscala
Narrimania
genusNarrimania
Eglisia
genusEglisia
Kurodacirsa
genusKurodacirsa
Acrilloscala
genusAcrilloscala
Rutelliscala
genusRutelliscala
Chuniscala
genusChuniscala
Couthouyella
genusCouthouyella
Variciscala
genusVariciscala
Minabescala
genusMinabescala
Rectacirsa
genusRectacirsa
Plastiscala
genusPlastiscala
Punctiscala
genusPunctiscala
Periapta
genusPeriapta
Alora
genusAlora
Propescala
genusPropescala
Sthenorytis
genusSthenorytis
Claviscala
genusClaviscala
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Epitoniidae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 122558.