Posted: Mar 21 2023
Naria turdus (Lamarck, 1810), Thrush Cowrie
March 2023: We now have six Cypraeidae in Florida waters.
Oleinik, Leal, DuPont and Uthairat. March 2023. A prediction held true: first record of the non-indigenous Thrush Cowrie Naria turdus (Lamarck, 1810) (Gastropoda: Cypraeidae) in South Florida. The Nautilus. 137(1):31-34.
"The non-indigenous thrush cowrie Naria turdus (Lamarck, 1810), with its natural range in the eastern Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, apparently appeared in the greater Caribbean region in 2020. First records seemingly come from the
island of Aruba where Mr. Leo Ros of the
Aruba Shell Club photographed a living
specimen of N. turdus in July of 2020 (Dekkers
and Ros, 2022)." "... we can expect Naria turdus
to appear in Florida’s coastal waters in the near
future. That “near future” had arrived on
December 24, 2022, when live N. turdus ... was
photographed underwater by Nuch Uthairat in
Lake Worth Lagoon ..." Adjacent photos with
permission of Ms. Uthairat via Anne Dupont.
Dekkers and Ros. August 2022. On the Invasion of Naria turdus (Gastropoda, Cypraeidae) in the Dutch Caribbean, with taxonomic notes on the species. The Festivus. Vol. 54(3).
"The species was first discovered in the Dutch Antilles by the second author in July 2020 in the waters around Aruba. (Figure 1)"
"Usually around 27-32 mm (can reach 40 mm+). Its shell co9lor pattern includes brown spots on the lighter-colored background of the dorsal shell surface, white, yellowish to greenish. The form of the shell is more or less oval and broader and more slender examples are regular finds." "The base is white and the white color is often seen dorsally as band around shell."
Adjacent photo is of N. turdus laying egg capsules. It's mantle is extended and covers the entire shell.
Fantastic photo on March 1, 2024 by Sandra Edwards taken in north Lake Worth Lagoon, Palm Beach Co., FL. Size is apx. 4-5 inches.
Another great photo by Sandra Edwards taken April 11, 2024 at the same location.
Click on icon for video taken of living animal by Dr. Anton Oleinik:
July 11, 2025
The Indisputable Expansion of the Thrush Cowrie in Florida Waters
José H. Leal, Science Director & Curator, Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum
Since I started publishing information about the invasion of the Caribbean and Florida by Naria turdus back in May 2022 (see below), I started receiving notes from divers and collectors narrating their findings, particularly in the Florida Keys, Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, and Martin counties in south and southeast Florida. One of them, Dr Darin Goldman, has been providing a steady stream of information on the species. A couple of weeks ago, Dr Goldman, who is an avid diver, sent four images of his catches of empty Thrush Cowrie shells. Each image was taken after a single dive, each
showing all the shells collected by Dr Goldman during that particular dive. During these four dives, he collected 10, 16, 20, 36 shells. But just this week, he picked up more than 150 empty Thrush Cowrie shells in a single 2.5-hour dive (photo)! Although we don’t have any hard evidence to back this up, I never heard of anyone (including myself) who had collected comparable numbers of the similarly sized local cowrie species, Naria acicularis or Luria cinerea during a single snorkel or SCUBA dive in Florida. Apparently, they are not that common. Native species may be displaced or otherwise affected by invasive species. How are these native species coping with the introduction of the Thrush Cowrie? Has anyone found them lately? And what is killing the Thrush Cowries in such large numbers? Please let us know your opinions!
Erosaria acicularis (Gmelin, 1791)
Propustulata surinamensis (G. Perry, 1811)
Macrocypraea cervus (Linnaeus, 1771)
Macrocypraea zebra (Linnaeus, 1758)
Luria cinerea (Gmelin, 1791)