PHYLUM: Mollusca
CLASS: Gastropoda
SPECIES: Calliostoma ligatum
COMMON NAME: Lined Top Snail
Of the common local Calliostoma species, C. ligatum is the most abundant.Like other Calliostoma, it eats a variety of food. It is often found on kelp, where it eats both encrusting organisms, like hydroids and bryozoans, but also the kelp itself.
Calliostoma ligatum is also found very frequently on the bottom, where it sometimes eats tunicates. The individual pictured here is on a tunicate of the family Didemnidae.
Like other related species, it covers its shell with mucus by rubbing its foot on the shell. This helps protect it from predation by sea stars. The mucus makes the snail slippery and hard to hold on to.
C. ligatum has a dark brown shell, with many thin, raised, spiral ridges of a lighter tan, almost yellow, color. Sometimes the nacreous layer shows through, causing some of the ridges look blue. It ranges from Alaska to Southern California, and can be found from the intertidal zone as well as in the kelp forest.