Umbraculum umbraculum
(Lightfoot, 1786)
Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, Antilles; Portugal to Cabo Verde, Mediterranean; South Africa; Mozambique to Australia and New Zealand, China, Japan. Predator on sponges in the infralittoral and the circalittoral, down to the continental shelf and slope. The colouration of the animal (orange, maroon, yellow, and even almost white in New South Wales deep water) could be related to the species on which it feeds.

Original taxon: Patella umbraculum.
15m deep, on mud, Málaga, Andalucia, S. Spain. 32mm.
The synonymy highlights the wide distribution of the species: bermudense, chinense, indicum, sinica
Local synonym: mediterraneum Lamarck.
The animal, much larger than its shell, is used to resting burrowed in sediments or inside its favourite sponge. As a result, the shell is often densely covered with some epibiont. Above: a specimen in Posidonia meadow, off Punta Mortella, Gulf of Saint-Florent, N. Corsica. Original picture provided by D. Renoult for iNaturalist – (CC BY-NC).
Specimen collected on reef at 15m deep, Surikozaki area, west of Amami-City, Amami-Oshima, S. Japan. 71mm.
Punta del Colorado, Tarajalejo, S. Fuerteventura, Canarias. Original picture provided by vicmar for iNaturalist.
– (CC BY-NC) –
Protoconch sinistral. Shell of a juvenile from 30-60m deep, Málaga. 1,3mm. Original picture provided by E. Squizzato (IT) – (CC BY-NC-SA).
The animal in H.-M. D. de Blainville: Manuel de malacologie et de conchyliologie, Paris 1827, plate XLIV via BHL.
Turriell Point, Shiprock Reserve, Port-Hacking, south of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Original picture provided by J. Turnbull for iNaturalist – (CC BY-NC-SA).
A specimen from Scilla, Reggio-Calabria, SW. Italy.
Original picture provided by F. Roncone (IT) – (CC BY-NC-SA).
The eggs.
Original picture provided by F. Roncone (IT) – (CC BY-NC-SA).

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