Strombus alatus

The Florida fighting conch, Strombus alatus, is a medium-sized marine snail that lives in warm waters. It belongs to the family Strombidae, the group known as true conches. Its scientific name comes from two Latin words: Strombus, which means a snail with a spiral shell (itself from the Greek στρόμβος, referring to something twisted or spun, like a top or, in Aristotle’s writings, a sea snail), and alatus, meaning “winged.”

This species is found in the western Atlantic Ocean, ranging from North Carolina down to Florida, across the Gulf of Mexico to Louisiana, Texas, and along Mexico’s eastern coast. Its shell can reach up to 112 mm in length.

Strombus alatus closely resembles Strombus pugilis, the West Indian fighting conch, which lives farther south. The shells of S. alatus have less prominent spines just below the whorls and a slightly more extended outer lip. Scientists have disagreed on whether these are separate species or just subspecies. In a 2005 study of the Stromboidea, Simone provisionally treated them as distinct species but noted that no major morphological differences were found, and all variations—including those in the genital system—could be seen as extremes within a single, widespread, variable species.

A 2006 phylogenetic analysis by Latiolais and colleagues, based on nuclear histone H3 and mitochondrial cytochrome-c oxidase I genes, placed S. alatus within a cladogram of 32 species from the genera Strombus and Lambis.

This conch lives from the surface down to a maximum depth of 183 meters.