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A bright lemon-yellow marine snail recently discovered in the Florida Keys was named Cayo margarita in honor of the citrusy drinks in Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville.”
The tiny snail was found in snorkeling-depth water in a heavily touristed area of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. This string of tropical islands is home to the only living coral barrier reef in the continental U.S.
“It’s another indication that right under our noses, we have undescribed species,” says Rüdiger Bieler, curator of invertebrates at the Field Museum in Chicago. “We’re still finding new things all around us.”
Bieler, who has spent four decades studying invertebrate animals in the western Atlantic, is the lead author of a research study published in the journal PeerJ about the Cayo margarita and a close cousin, Cayo galbinus, discovered on the coral reefs off Belize. The snails tend to be found on pieces of dead coral.
Bieler noted that the snails “are so small and so well-hidden that we’ve not encountered them before during our scuba diving surveys. We had to look very closely.”
Buffett, who died Sept. 1 at age 76, was beloved for his catchy Caribbean-influenced songs, including the iconic “Margaritaville,” which was released in 1977.
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