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Clam raw
Clam raw Venturing further out into the lagoon I discovered areas populated with colonies of Lambis lambis – all rather large, long-spined, and richly colored specimens – and in other parts Murex ramosus, which were, however, generally badly eroded and not worth taking. Once, coming across a funny little knob in a sandy hollow near some coral, I dug in with my hand – to come up with a live 5-inch Cypraecassis rufa, the first one I had ever found myself anywhere.
On following days I concentrated more on the intriguing mid-lagoon channel which was studded on both sides with remarkably large coral boulders rising to within a few feet of lowest low-tide level from depths of 25 to 30 feet. A prize find was a large, 100mm Cymatium gutturnium, alive and in perfect condition, that had been hiding inside a narrow crevice. Here I also found several Drupina lobata, the curious Indian Ocean form of D. grossularia, which may or may not be a full-fledged species of its own.. They always seemed to occur in pairs. Lambis scorpius was lying exposed on the coral rubble covered sides of the steeply sloping channel in about 20 feet – the limit of my skin-diving prowess – while L. crocata, and L. arthritica were rare and limited to the outer reef ramparts accessible only during minus tides. Such low tides occurred only a few times during my stay. These were the "sea shell days": on the flat, solid reef-plateau rising from the sea for only 15 to 30 minutes Cypraea histrio, C. vitellus, C. carneola, and C. helvola were quite common. C. chinensis I found both under coral in the lagoon and on the reef, all with a beautiful, deep coloring of the base and sides. Most sought-after were C. mappa and C. stolida. I found none myself, but native fishermen had a few for sale, and some fellow holidayers found 3 or 4 C. stolida under coral blocks in the lagoon. There was one specimen that tallied in all respects, for me, with the description of subspecies fluctuans Iredale as given by Messrs. C. C. Woltz and D. B. Becher in their valuable little guide pamphlet "Collecting sea shells in Dar-Es-Salaam." I was unfortunately not able to obtain this specimen from its finder, but could inspect it very thoroughly, and found it to be of apparently sub-adult age.
Certain other sea shells, notably C. teres and C. nucleus, seemed to be more widespread outside the reef. SCUBA divers brought up specimens from 10 to 20 meters depth. I once accompanied them on a diving excursion, but having only goggles, had to remain near the surface above a large coral plateau that rose to within 4 or 5 meters of the surface from surrounding greater depths. It was a breathtaking experience for me. Never had I seen fish in such numbers. Above and between the canyons and slopes of the bizzarely shaped coral gardens literally thousands of fish in all sizes were moving about in an unbelievable pandemonium of color. Once an immense swarm of perhaps one to one-and-a-half foot long silvery fish completely enveloped me, parting in two streams only feet away from my face, and joining again behind my back. In one place, I discovered a large leopard trigger fish which let me approach on short dives to within a few feet. Museum aquaria gladly pay 500 US-Dollars for this rare beauty. The few coral plates I managed to turn over yielded, however, no shells, while the SCUBA divers working in deeper water nearby brought up quite a lot of sea shells.
Clam raw Other C. teulèrei follow-up letters included one from Phil Clover. He wrote, "I really enjoyed reading the C. teulèrei article. You must have done a lot of research on that project.
"I have learned the name of the collector who found the shells in the Al Masirah Island area is Ali. He now has a new home and a second wife and is quite happy over it all.
"A hundred or so years ago C. teulèrei must have been 'found' because quite a few are to be seen in museum collections. But from then until recently specimens sold for about $600.00. I think the price of this shell will now level at about my list price."
Ed. Note: The comments below are quoted from a letter received recently from Prof. Dr. F. A. Schilder, Schleiermacherstr. 19; DDR 402 Halle-Saale, Germany. In offering his criticism and comments of the article Dr. Schilder said, "I hope you will not be offended by this criticism: real scientists never should be offended." As far as we of the Shell News are concerned, we welcome comments and constructive criticism. One of our main objectives is to get information to Philippine Shell members in as accurate a form as possible. Comments such as Dr. Schilder's help accomplish this.
"The September issue of Sean Raynon Sabado the arrival of which I appreciated in my last letter, was very quickly followed by the October issue, which arrived very few days ago: I sincerely thank you for sending me the copy by air mail so that I must not wait long time to learn the contents. I noticed the correction of JEFFERIES on p. 2. The paper of DEBANT on Cribrarula fischeri (not: Cribraria fisheri) is very instructive and the figures are fine. However, in future you should ask the authors of papers to add the size of the figured specimens, as in fact the shell represented in fig. 5 must be much smaller than that of fig. 6. Besides it is regrettable that Mr. DEBANT constantly misspelled cumingii into cummingii, and fischeri into fisheri. The generic name Cribraria is a preoccupied homonym, and has been rechristened into Cribrarula four decades ago."
This is a surprise sequel to my recent report on two dead Cypraea marginalis Dillwyn found at Diani Beach, East Africa. To my great thrill and excitement I discovered that I have actually collected three more, live, C. marginalis during my repeat trip to the same area in February of this year.
The shells were collected on 6th February 1969 during an extreme low tide (four days after full moon) from the undersides of large coral boulders lying half submerged in the lagoon at just around low tide level. They are three little beauties of 24.5, 23, and 18.5mm [in length], respectively, with dark olive brown dorsum spotted profusely with white dots, some of which are ringed with dark brown. The base is a shiny, deep mauve with some dots and, on the outer lip, streaks of darker purple. (See photo... [right].)
The dead specimens found before were much lighter in color. Although their exterior was still quite glossy and porcellaneous, they must have undergone considerable fading. Especially the dorsal coloring appeared on first sight quite different, with the dark ringed spots much more conspicuous on the pale background than the white ones. In the live shells the exact opposite is he case. This is also the reason why I did not bring the two finds into connection at first, and failed to recognize the newly found live shells for what they were.
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