Eric spotted this beautiful Striped Dogwhelk (Nucella ostrina) yesterday (2 May 2025). This is a common snail in the rocky intertidal zone in northern California, but we can't recall seeing purple variants of Nucella ostrina, so here's a photo for the record.
More often, Striped Dogwhelks are versions of black, brown, gray, or white. Here are some individuals feeding on barnacles:
Occasionally you'll spot an orange Nucella ostrina —they really stand out!
Breeding experiments suggest that color variation in Nucella ostrina likely has a genetic basis (Palmer 1984).
