The picture shows the subspecies squamata, my picture of Haliotis diversicolor diversicolor - photographed under the same light conditions - has much more reflections. This depends partly on the individual variation of natural objects. On the other hand we must consider that mother of pearl has structure colours, not pigment colours (like e.g. some feathers of birds). So the colour (or no colour) depends only from light conditions. Therefore the appearance of the reflections can be highly variable. In addition, the reflection depends also, besides the lightning, from the individual surface of the mother of pearl. Smooth surfaces have more reflections than rough. If you take a living shell, kill the animal and remove the shell, you have a smooth, heavier reflecting mother of pearl as in a "beached" shell (that is a shell, you find at the beach, and which was exposed to the weather for some time). As further information: The name diversicolor does not refer to the mother of pearl, but to the outside of the shell. --Llez (talk) 11:18, 4 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
