created from "a mucous secretion from the hypobranchial gland of one of several medium-sized predatory sea snails found in the eastern Mediterranean. These are the marine gastropods Murex brandaris , (currently known as Haustellum brandaris (Linnaeus, 1758), spiny dye-murex), the banded dye-murex Hexaplex trunculus and the rock-shell Stramonita haemastoma . "