Regarding Littoraria tessellata (Philippi, 1847), Abbott (American Seashells 1974) commented that this shell was “A color form [of L. nebulosa (Lamarck, 1822) with] … a checkered brown pattern on a grayish white background.” Since that time Dr. David G. Reid, Department of Zoology, Natural History Museum, London, has done extensive morphological, anatomical and molecular research on Littorininae of the tropical and subtropical western Atlantic and established that Littoraria tessellata (Philippi, 1847) is a distinct species with clear and consistent differences in animal sexual anatomy and shell morphology. However, the shell morphology of L. tessellata and L. nebulosa is very similar and differences are best discernible when the two are compared side by side.

References

Reid, D.G. 1986. The Littorinid Molluscs of Mangrove Forests In the Indo-Pacific Region: the Genus Littoraria. British Museum (Natural History), London. XV + 228pp.

Reid, D.G. 2001. New data on the taxonomy and distribution of the genus Littoraria Griffith and Pidgeon, 1834 (Gastropoda: Littorinidae) in Indo-West Pacific mangrove forests. Nautilus 115: 115-139.