Bull mouth helmet

About this species

Cypraecassis rufa is a species of large sea snail, a predatory marine gastropod mollusc in the family Cassidae. It is commonly known as the "bullmouth shell" or "red helmet shell", and also as the "cameo shell". Other names in English include bull's-mouth conch, red helmet and cameo shell. In German it is called "Rote Porzellanschnecke", "Rote Helmschnecke" or "Feuerofen"; and in Japanese, "マンボウガイ". It was classified in 1758 by Carolus Linnaeus, who described it as Buccinum rufum.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Cypraecassis rufa”, 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: 5 records
February: 8 records
March: 7 records
April: 1 records
May: 7 records
June: 8 records
July: 16 records
August: 5 records
September: 7 records
October: 14 records
November: 0 records
December: 6 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 2–15 m · Deepest record: 15 m

0–10 m: 1 records
10–20 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 23–30 °C

22–24 °C: 1 records
24–26 °C: 1 records
26–28 °C: 22 records
28–30 °C: 28 records

Photos

(c) Diogo Luiz, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) TonyT, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Lily Bovim, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Lisa_James, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Bull mouth helmet, Bullmouth helmet, Bull's-mouth conch, Red helmet, bull mouth helmet, bullmouth helmet, bull's-mouth conch, red helmet

Names in 2 more languages

German: Feuerofen, Rote Helmschnecke, Rote Porzellanschnecke
Japanese: マンボウガイ

Other scientific names: Buccinum pennatum, Buccinum pullum, Buccinum rufum, Buccinum ventricosum, Cassis labiata, Cassis rufa, Cassis rufescens, Cassis tuberosa, Cypraecassis (Cypraecassis) rufa

Similar species

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).
175 open-data records from 1758 to 2007.
Species data updated November 2, 2026.