NATURA SLOVENIAE 21(1): 55-56 Prejeto / Received: 7. 4. 2019 
FIELD NOTE Sprejeto / Accepted: 5. 6. 2019 
 
Biotehniška fakulteta Univerze v Ljubljani in Nacionalni inštitut za biologijo, Ljubljana, 2019 
The first documented finds of 
Calliostoma laugieri 
(Payraudeau, 1826) 
(Gastropoda: Calliostomatidae) 
on the coastal mollusc shell 
deposit at Ankaran 
 
Prvi dokumentirani najdbi Calliostoma 
laugieri (Payraudeau, 1826) 
(Gastropoda: Calliostomatidae) na 
školjčni sipini pri Ankaranu 
 
Sonja HUČ, Preloge 53, SI-1211 Ljubljana – 
Šmartno, Slovenia; E-mail: sonja.huc@gmail.com 
 
The snail Calliostoma laugieri (Payraudeau, 1826) 
is an intertidal and infralittoral dwelling species 
that feeds on animals of the order Actiniaria (Simič 
2014). It can be found among the sea grass 
Posidonia oceanica (Albano & Sabelli 2012) and 
Cystoseira algal associations (Pitacco et al. 2014). 
The animal is uniformly brown, while the shell 
varies greatly, from olive green with brown 
speckles to beige or brown and even to solid 
purple. The shell is conically shaped with a natural 
shine, completely smooth or with spiral ribs, the 
body whorl is rounded and oftentimes the bottom 
edge of each whorl is thickened. It lacks an 
umbilicus and has a rounded aperture with 
mother-of-pearl on the inside (Simič 2014). 
 
C. laugieri is distributed along the European 
Mediterranean coast and the Atlantic coast of 
Portugal and Spain (MolluscaBase 2019). It has 
also been found in Morocco along the Strait of 
Gibraltar (Conchology 2015a, 2015b). Its presence 
along the Slovenian coast is known and it is 
considered to be frequent (De Min & Vio 1997), 
however, C. laugieri was not observed during 
previous field work on the coastal mollusc shell 
deposit at Ankaran (De Min et al. 1997), nor are 
there any more recent publications to suggest so. 
The coastal mollusc shell deposit was created due 
to dredging of deposits at the time the Port of 
Koper deepened the sea floor close to their docks 
(Geister 2014). Through time, rain and the tides 
washed away the silt and a pile of shells was left.
 
Figure 1. The snail Calliostoma laugieri, collected on  
22. 7. 2018 in coastal mollusc shell deposits at Ankaran 
in Southwestern Slovenia (photo: Sonja Huč). 
Slika 1. Polž Calliostoma laugieri, najden 22. 7. 2018 na 
školjčni sipini v Ankaranu v jugozahodni Sloveniji (foto: 
Sonja Huč). 
 
During field work done as part of the Biology 
Students Research Camp »Slovenska Istra«, the 
marine molluscs group found a single specimen of 
C. laugieri (Fig. 1) at the coastal mollusc shell 
deposit at Ankaran on 22. 7. 2018. This is an 
interesting find, as despite the wide distribution of 
the species and the amount of previous field work 
done at that location, this is the first documented 
specimen from this particular locality. The 
specimen, with a width of 10.28 mm and a height 
of 8.66 mm, has a missing apex and faded colours 
due to sun exposure. The presence of this species 
on the coastal mollusc shell deposit at Ankaran 
was further confirmed by a second find of a single 
specimen during field work carried out on  
11. 4. 2019. This shell has a width of 13.26 mm 
and a height of 13.79 mm, also with a missing 
apex. Most of the outer calcareous layer has been 
chipped off, exposing the inner mother-of-pearl. 
 
It is unknown whether these shells belonged to 
more recently deceased snails and were washed 
ashore or if they were part of the dredged deposits 
and only now became exposed. They still, 
however, expand the known diversity of the 
malacological fauna of this mollusc shell deposit. 
 
 Sonja HUČ: The first documented finds of Calliostoma laugieri (Payrudeau, 1826) ... / FIELD NOTE 
NATURA SLOVENIAE 21(1): 55-56 
56 
Acknowledgements 
 
The fieldwork was carried out as part of the Biology 
Students Research Camp, organized by the Biological 
Student’s Society, Ljubljana, Slovenia. We wish to thank 
Jan Simič for his support, providing literature, and for 
confirming the species identification. Thanks also to 
Simona Prevorčnik for her guidance and support. 
 
 
References 
 
Albano P.G., Sabelli B. (2012): The molluscan 
assemblages inhabiting the leaves and 
rhizomes of a deep water Posidonia oceanica 
settlement in the central Tyrrhenian Sea. Sci. 
Mar. 76(4): 721-732. 
Conchology (2015a): Calliostoma laugieri Leg. Ex. 
C. Bert, 1983. Coll. M. Verhaeghe. 
https://www.conchology.be/?t=68&u=903542
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13c5245fd49bcf5f96aae86f2caf09df [accessed 
in April 2019] 
Conchology (2015b): Calliostoma laugieri Ex-coll. 
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https://www.conchology.be/?t=68&u=216772
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