West Indian Top Shell

This species occurs rarely in the Florida Keys, and in the Caribbean coast of Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Venezuela. It also occurs in the Bahamas, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and the Lesser Antilles as far south as Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. The species has been reintroduced to Bermuda.

Cittarium pica is dioecious, which means each individual organism belonging to this species is distinctly male or female. The fertilisation in this species occurs externally. During the reproductive season, which normally occurs from June to November in the field, male individuals release their sperm into the water, as females simultaneously release their green colored unfertilised eggs. The encounter of those gametes produce yolky fertilised eggs, which will further develop into lecitotrophic (yolk feeding) larvae. They emerge from the egg capsules as shell-cap-bearing trochophores. These trochophore larvae do not spend much time in the plankton, because settlement occurs relatively soon, after 3.5 to 4.5 days. Individuals usually reach sexual maturity at shell lengths of 32–34 mm. The life span of this species is still unknown, but estimates for other top shells reach 30 years.