Bolinus brandaris (originally called Murex brandaris by Linnaeus), and commonly known as the purple dye murex or the spiny dye-murex, is a species of medium-sized predatory sea snail, an edible marine gastropod mollusk in the family Muricidae, the murex snails or the rock snails.^[1]

An illustration of the species from Martin Lister's 17th century shell book.^[2]

Distribution

This snail lives in the central and western parts of the Mediterranean Sea and has been found on isolated coral atoll beaches in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea. It was known since ancient times as a source for purple dye and also as a popular food source under various names, among which sconciglio, from which comes the word scungilli.

Habitat

This species lives on rocks in shallow water.

A shell of Bolinus brandaris: this particular shell has a broken lip because it was between growth stages when it died, and the edge of the aperture is easily damaged during that time.

Shell description

The shell is usually golden-brown in color with a very long siphonal canal and a rounded body whorl with a low spire. There are a row of spines corresponding to the end of each growth stage.

The adult shell size of this species is about 60 to 90 mm.

Human use

This species, like many other species in the family Muricidae, can produce a secretion which is milky and without color when fresh but which turns into a powerful and lasting dye when exposed to the air.

This was the mollusc species used by the ancients to produce Tyrian purple fabric dye.

Sea snails of the species Banded dye-murex Hexaplex trunculus were also used to produce a purple-blue or indigo dye. In both cases the mollusks secrete the dye in mucus from their hypobranchial glands.

It is a cannibalistic species. Intensive breeding in ancient Minoan civilizations revealed shells were pierced by fellow individuals possibly due to the high density of population in breeding tanks.

See also

• Tyrian purple
• Hexaplex trunculus

References

Further reading

• Radwin, G. E. & D'Attilio A. (1986). Murex shells of the world. An illustrated guide to the Muricidae. Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford, x + pp. 1-284 incl 192 figs. + 32 pls.

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