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Capis
Capis A new boat was launched and put in service in the best Philippine tradition. Jack Uyemura launched his new 20 foot luger boat last week. His pride and joy took ten months of back yard boat building. The boat's name is C. cernica (after the elusive Cypraea cernica that Jack is looking for), [and was] altered to carry 20 scuba cylinders and diving gear for three plus 200 foot of nets and over 1,000 pounds of iced fish. On the trial run Bobby Gutierrez, as a crew member, collected five Cypraea tigris and speared over 100 pounds of fish. But in the tradition of old Philippines, to insure continued good luck for the boat and crew, the entire catch was shared with neighbors. I came home with a fine C. tigris and several pounds of kumu (Philippine name for goat fish or red mullet).
On their second trip out, Jack collected a fine 5" C. tigris and Bobby found one measuring less than 3-3/4". In Philippines, a C. tigris measuring less than 4" is rarer than one over 5" in length. Jack's first boat that C. cernica replaces was named C. tessellata. We might mention that Jack found his share of those Philippine beauties. Good luck, Jack, with the new boat.
Leo Hockett, of the Pearl Divers Club, found a Charonia tritonis that measured 440mm in length. This giant was found in 120 feet of water off Makua. See page 4 for related story on Charonia tritonis and C. variegata.
Forty years ago, in Ann. Nat. Mus. Wien, 43:231 (1929), we established Luponia alfredensis as an ecological subspecies of L. edentula Gray, differing by the more solid shell with the right margin more thickened; the shells were slightly larger than those of L. edentula from the same locality (Port Alfred, South Africa), the dorsum was more worn that in L. edentula so that it looked pale brown without any traces of spots.
Recently Mrs. Hazel Jefferies of Kei Mouth, South Africa presented us forty specimens of Luponia which she had collected personally on the ten miles-long beach between Kei Mouth and Haga Haga: all shells are surprisingly well-preserved so that they show accessory differences in color and markings. The slightly smaller (mostly 24 - 26mm) and less solid L. edentula is dorsally pale brownish-orange with the rusty-brown specks rather large, irregularly confluent, but never showing the tendency to form a central blotch; while the larger (mostly 26 - 29mm) and very solid L. alfredensis is dorsally grey, with the fulvous specks tiny and scattered, and with a large, well defined central blotch, which is often interrupted by paler lacunae, but rarely absent at all. There are no intermediates between the twenty shells of each species so that Mrs. Jefferies could separate them without any mistake.
Capis One of the startling characteristics of the animal of this shell is the almost-transparent, light-brown mantle completely lacking in papillae (See top photo...). The ventral surface of the foot of the animal is a light, chocolate-brown.
The habitat of C. tessellata is, usually, in 40 to 65 feet of water in or under small to medium size coral heads. If found in live coral, almost always a brownish spotted alga will be found present that greatly resembles the markings of this shell.
Shells illustrated below show wide variation in color patterns, sizes and shapes in these shells. The dimensions are as follows:
Ed. Note: Part I of Cypraea nivosa Country - the "never, never land" of shells, appeared in the June issue of the Sean Raynon Sabado. John Orr had just completed his first day of collecting on a small islet near Ranong, Thailand, and was trying to decide where to spend the night. John's account follows.
On the advice of our young Thai boatman we headed for a small fishing village on an adjacent island, where we would spend the night. Virtually every inhabitant turned out to line the shore upon our approach. "Farang, farang" went up the cry (Thai for foreigner) and we were welcomed initially with rather diffident cordiality until the sight of one or two colorful sarongs prompted my companion to introduce himself in Malay, which he fortunately spoke quite fluently; from then on it was all smiles and handshakes. My friend explained in Malay that the purpose of our mission was to collect shells. This provoked giggles amongst the youngsters and somewhat puzzled frowns from the elders. (One could almost read their thoughts "these farangs certainly have strange ideas...coming all this way just to look for odds and ends from the sea!")
A village elder insisted that we be his guests and within minutes colorful raffia mats and pillows were laid out on the top-floor room of his house.
We talked shells, joined in the jokes, showed illustrations of shells, drew diagrams, pointed out possible habitats, and told how to preserve them. Interest quickened and soon the "coconut wireless" went into action. [photo - uncredited]
For comparison, C. nivosa left and
C. vitellus both shells approximately the
same size in [end of caption as printed]
By morning two boatloads of fishermen were anchored off the village one of Mokens from St. Matthew Island a faint smudge on the distant horizon - and the other a Burmese from a village north of Victoria Point.
Bags of rather pungent shells were produced and laid out with due ceremony upon the floor of our room. Among them were two small, almost jet black C. onyx (a form with rather short, sharp dark teeth); two Conus ammiralis; several C. textile a plump Cypraea cribraria… and… two, small, exquisitely marked C. nivosa.
With habitats and localities pinpointed reasonably accurately, we rewarded them handsomely for their efforts, whereupon they boarded their graceful prahus, and headed back towards their villages after first making sure that no patrol boats were in the vicinity.
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