Cowrie

About this species

Bistolida hirundo is a species of sea snail, a cowry, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Bistolida hirundo”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 12 records
February: 20 records
March: 17 records
April: 9 records
May: 9 records
June: 15 records
July: 22 records
August: 32 records
September: 13 records
October: 20 records
November: 11 records
December: 17 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 3–205 m · Deepest record: 394.5 m

0–10 m: 5 records
10–20 m: 3 records
20–30 m: 4 records
30–40 m: 4 records
40–50 m: 4 records
50–60 m: 0 records
60–70 m: 0 records
70–80 m: 0 records
80–90 m: 0 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110+ m: 3 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 20–30 °C

18–20 °C: 1 records
20–22 °C: 1 records
22–24 °C: 17 records
24–26 °C: 57 records
26–28 °C: 78 records
28–30 °C: 77 records

Photos

(c) Takaaki Hattori, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Jay Brasher, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Takaaki Hattori, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Lisa Bennett, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) TonyT, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Denys Vynokurov, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Cowrie, swallow cowrie

Names in 3 more languages

Japanese: サバダカラ
Thai: หอยเบี้ยนกนางแอ่น
Simplified Chinese: 大熊寶螺

Other scientific names: Blasicrura (Derstolida) hirundo, Blasicrura hirundo, Cypraea hirundo, Cypraea parvula, Erronea (Stolida) hirundo, Evenaria hirundo

Similar species

Kiener's Cowry
Bistolida kieneri
Stolid cowrie
Bistolida stolida
little bear cowrie
Bistolida ursellus
Sieve cowrie
Cribrarula cribraria
Tiger cowrie
Cypraea tigris
Thick-edged cowry
Erronea caurica

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
461 open-data records from 1758 to 2023.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.