Header Image
Epitoniidae Berry, 1910 (1812)

Epidendrium billeeanum

(DuShane & Bratcher, 1965)

Description:

Dimensions range from 5 mm - 25 mm high and 3.04 mm - 9.09 mm wide.
Width to height ratio: 0.61:1 ~ 0.36:1

Shell: trochiform, broad conical; thin and fragile; minute to moderately small. Exterior colour white. About 11 whorls; protoconch with 3-4 whorls smooth, glassy, rapidly enlarging; teleoconch with 6-7 whorls strongly convex. Umbilicate: narrow, partially covered by columella. Approximately 25 - 49 costae on the body whorl. Costae are orthocline, low, regularly placed, lamellar, sometimes curved. Costae sometimes touching the adjoining whorls; discontinuous. Intercostal spaces regularly placed, relatively thick, spiral threads crossing axial lines creating cancellate sculpture. Columella partially deflected. Aperture somewhat quadrate; outer lip thin. Periostracum thin, pale, brownish to yellowish.


Distribution:

Mexico [Gulf of California] - Panama, Galapagos [DuShane, 1974:9]; Clipperton Island [Kaiser, 2007:32]. Brown & Neville [2015:41] state 'records from the western Pacific and Indian Oceans refer to the similar Epidendrium aureum A. & E. Gittenberger, 2005, or E. sordidum A. & E. Gittenberger, 2005'; however Wells et al. [2021:127] cite records from Andaman Sea and Gulf of Thailand


Habitat:

2-14m. Lives in association with Tubastrea tenuilamellosa (Milne-Edwards and Haime, 1848), coral host Tubastraea coccinea Lesson, 1863 [Kaiser, 2007:32], feeds on the red coral Tubastrea aurea (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824) [DuShane, 1985:69]


Etymology:

Named for Billee Dilworth who was the first to find the species, with eggs, living on its coral host.


Type Material:

Holotype: GAS[GTC] 12729 [Scalina billeeana] for Epidendrium billeeanum (DuShane & Bratcher, 1965) - Type Locality: Scalina billeeana: Southwest end of Cerralvo Island, Gulf of California, Mexico; lat. 24°09'N; long. 109°55' W. [DuShane, H., 1974]
Holotype: California Academy of Science Geology Type Collection No. 12729. Paratypes will be distributed to the United States National Museum, the British Museum (Natural History), the American Museum of Natural History, the Conchological Collection of Stanford University, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (No. 22208), and the Los Angeles County Mu-seum. The remaining paratypes are in the collections of Twila Bratcher, Billee Dilworth, Norman Currin, and Helen DuShane. The largest paratype is 14.07 mm in height and 9.09 mm in diameter; the smallest is 5 mm in height and 3.04mm in diameter. for Epidendrium billeeanum (DuShane & Bratcher, 1965) - Type Locality: Southwest end of Cerralvo Island, Gulf of California, Mexico, Latitude 24° 09' North, Longitude 109° 55' West, under rocky ledges in depths of eight to ten feet. [DuShane, H.; Bratcher, T., 1965]
holotype CAS 63823/1sh, BMNH paratype/1sh, RMNH 100427/8sn+e. for Epidendrium billeeanum (DuShane & Bratcher, 1965) - Type Locality: MEXICO. Gulf of California, SW Cerralvo Island. (hosted by Tubastrea tenuilamellosa). [Gittenberger A. & Gittenberger E., 2005]
Holotype: CAS 12729. Paratypes:AMNH 128727 (1 specimen); AMNH 220847 (2 specimens with host coral Tubastrea tenuilamellosa (H. Milne Edwards & Haime, 1848), ex N. Currin via A. Barlow Collection); AMNH 275618 (2 specimens with host coral T. tenuilamellosa, ex DuShane Collection).
Additional paratypes are deposited in SBMNH 22208, BMNH, LACM, SU, USNM, and the collections of T. Bratcher and B. Dilworth [as Scalina billeeana DuShane and Bratcher, 1965] - Type Locality: 8-10 ft, 24°09′N, 109°55′W, southwest end of Cerralvo Island, Baja California Sur, Gulf of California, Mexico, Pacific Ocean. Collector: B. Dilworth, N. Currin, and T. Bratcher, April 1965.. [Boyko, C. B., & Cordeiro, J. R., 2001]


SpeciesImage

Gittenberger A. & Gittenberger E. (2005). pp: 154. Plate 56.

56, E. billeeanum, holotype, Gulf of
California, USA.

Distribution

as listed in source literature

DuShane, H.; Bratcher, T. (1965).
Species Image
Plate 24. Fig. 1.
Figure 1: ventral view of holotype, CASGTC, no. 12729 (× 9).
Species Image
pp: 161.
Original description
Species Image
pp: 161.
Original description
DuShane, H. (1974).
Species Image
pp: 14. Fig. 13.
Figure 13: Epitonium (Asperiscala) billeeanum (DuShane & Brat-cher, 1965). Holotype, CAS[GTC] 12729; length 7mm; width, 4 mm; ventral view
Xg
Species Image
pp: 14. Fig. 15.
Figure 15: Epitonium (Asperiscala) billeeanum (DuShane & Brat-cher, 1965) . Same shell as in Figure 13, dorsal view
Xg
Species Image
pp: 9.
Original description
Kaicher, S.D. (1983).
Species Image
Card #: EP3-3650.
Card #: EP3-3650
Gittenberger A. & Gittenberger E. (2005).
Species Image
pp: 154. Plate 56.
56, E. billeeanum, holotype, Gulf of
California, USA.
Kaiser, K. L. (2007).
Species Image
pp: 107. Plate 18. Fig. 2a.
Île Clipperton, (10°17'29"N, 109°13'32"W), S end landing site, live, on Tubastrea sp. attached to coral slab, 15 m (50 ft), H2O 84°F, leg. K.L. Kaiser, diving from R/V Urracá, 4 May 1994. KLK Coll. 200644. Size: 10.6 mm.
Photographs by P. Sadeghian.
Nakayama, T. & Kazunori, H. (2016).
Species Image
pp: 20. Fig. 3a-b.
3. Epidendrium billeeanum (DuShane & Bratcher, 1965), Baja California, Mexico, Nakayama collection

Synonymy:

Scalina billeeana DuShane & Bratcher, 1965: [in Brown, L. & Neville, B.D., 2015].
Scalina billeeana DuShane and Bratcher, 1965 [in Boyko, C. B., & Cordeiro, J. R., 2001].


Source Literature:

Boyko, C. B., & Cordeiro, J. R. (2001). Catalog of recent type specimens in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History. V. Mollusca, part 2 (Class Gastropoda [exclusive of Opisthobranchia and Pulmonata], with supplements to Gastropoda [Opisthobranchia], and Bivalvia).. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 262. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298847335 [Accessed 26 January 2026]
Brown, L. & Neville, B.D. (2015). Catalog of the recent taxa of the families Epitoniidae and Nystiellidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda) with a bibliography of the descriptive and systematic literature. [Watson, 1886:143]Zootaxa. 3907(1). Magnolia Press Auckland, New Zealand. http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3907.1.1 [Accessed 22 October 2023]
DuShane, H. (1974). The Panamic-Galapagan Epitoniidae. The Veliger. 16 (Sup. 14). https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42500298 [Accessed 25 September 2023]
DuShane, H. (1985). The family Epitoniidae of Panama Bay. The Festivus. 17(7). https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/196075 [Accessed 11 January 2026]
DuShane, H.; Bratcher, T. (1965). A new Scalina from the Gulf of California.. The Veliger. 8(2). https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42500051 [Accessed 4 March 2025]
Gittenberger A. & Gittenberger E. (2005). A hitherto unnoticed adaptive radiation: epitoniid species (Gastropoda: Epitoniidae) associated with corals (Scleractinia).. Contributions to Zoology. 74(1-2). Contributions to Zoology. http://www.repository.naturalis.nl/document/43091 [Accessed 16 July 2023]
Groves, L.T. (2012). Catalog of Recent Molluscan Types in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Natural History Museum of Los Angels County, Malacology Section. https://www.academia.edu/77579686/Catalog_of_Recent_Molluscan_Types_in_the_Natural_History_Museum_of_Los_Angeles_County [Accessed 8 August 2025]
Kaicher, S.D. (1983). Epitoniidae III [Pack 35]. S. D. Kaicher, St. Petersburg, Florida. http://www.femorale.com/kaicher/species.asp?f=Epitoniidae&c=125 [Accessed 8 May 2023]
Kaiser, K. L. (2007). The recent molluscan fauna of Île Clipperton (tropical eastern Pacific). The Festivus. 39(supplement). https://stri-apps.si.edu/docs/publications/pdfs/Ile_Clipperton_COMPLETE2.pdf [Accessed 14 November 2025]
Keen, À. M. (1971). Sea shells of tropical west America: Marine mollusks from Baja California to Peru. Stanford University Press
Nakayama, T. & Kazunori, H. (2016). Description of a New Species of the Genus Epidendrium from Japan, with Taxonomical Comments on the Taxa Previously Assigned to the Genus Alora in the Northwestern Pacific (Gastropoda: Epitoniidae). Venus. 71(1-2). Malacological Society of Japan. DOI: http://doi.org/10.18941/venus.74.1-2_19 [Accessed 14 September 2023]
Weil, A., Brown, L. & Neville, B. (1999). The Wentletrap Book. Evolver
Wells, E., Sanpanich, K., Tan, S. K, & Duangdee, T. (2021). The Marine and Estuarine Molluscs of Thailand. Lee Kong Chian natural History Museum
WoRMS Editorial Board (2025). World Register of Marine Species. https://www.marinespecies.org [Accessed 8 November 2025]

WoRMS direct page link: Open WoRMS record