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Banded Tulip
Fasciolaria hunteria
The shape of the banded tulip is almost identical to that of the true tulip. As a member of the tulip family, it is among the most aggressive of all gastropods. Not only are tulips aggressive, they can also eat other tulips. This can be unfortunate for the banded tulip as it is the smaller of the two species. This shell has only one pattern, but it is indeed striking. The bands from which it gets its name are very bold and rarely broken. While the true tulip exhibits light clouds against a darker background, the banded tulip features dark vertical blotches or clouds on a light background. There are a number of color forms.
The most common live specimens will have bluish-gray clouds mixed with tan, almost multicolored.
It is still possible to find numbers of live banded tulips on the beaches at low tide, and they seem more plentiful than the true tulip. The dead beach shells seem to maintain the striking pattern for quite some time.
A variety of colors of banded tulips is shown below.
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