Shouldered castor bean

About this species

Drupella margariticola, common name the shouldered castor bean, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk, in the family Muricidae, the murex snails or rock snails.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Drupella margariticola”, 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: 77 records
February: 73 records
March: 51 records
April: 56 records
May: 68 records
June: 121 records
July: 97 records
August: 82 records
September: 139 records
October: 134 records
November: 59 records
December: 71 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 1–7 m · Deepest record: 50 m

0–10 m: 129 records
10–20 m: 4 records
20–30 m: 3 records
30–40 m: 0 records
40–50 m: 0 records
50–60 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 20–30 °C

18–20 °C: 2 records
20–22 °C: 4 records
22–24 °C: 257 records
24–26 °C: 94 records
26–28 °C: 124 records
28–30 °C: 240 records

Photos

(c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Rod Lowther, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Min-Hsuan NI, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Harry Rose, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Auradyme, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Татьяна Максимова, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Rod Lowther, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Shouldered castor bean, Oyster Drill, shouldered castor bean

Names in 3 more languages

German: Geschulterte Igelschnecke
Japanese: ウネレイシダマシ
Simplified Chinese: 稜結螺

Other scientific names: Cronia crassulnata, Cronia margariticola, Drupa margariticola, Drupa undata, Ergalatax crassulnata, Ergalatax margariticola, Morula margariticola, Morula rhyssa, Murex margariticola, Murex undatus, Purpura lineolata, Purpura squamosa, Purpura squamulosa, Purpura violacea, Ricinula undata, Sistrum indica, Sistrum undatum, Thais crassulnata, Thais margariticola

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).
1,653 open-data records from 1903 to 2023.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.