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Components of mother pearl
Components of mother pearl The circumstances under which I obtained the three specimens were incidentally quite an example of the strange tricks chance sometimes likes to play on us shell collectors. Working slowly along a coral bank not far from shore that had for the first time during my stay risen out of the water this day, I was suddenly interrupted by a native fisherman. He was returning in his canoe from the reef, and held two of these sea shells in the outstretched palm of his hand offering them for sale. I took them to be C. poraria, and found his asking price, which was in line with the rare C. stolida and C. mappa sometimes offered by the natives, quite staggering. As the fisherman seemed, however, not quite able himself to place his find I finally bought the two sea shells after long bargaining for a moderate price. Walking away happily with my purchase I had not gone 20 yards yet when I saw a promising looking coral block sticking half way out of the water. Resuming my own hunting, and turning the block over – there was the third of these sea shells staring me in the face from a hollow in the underside! It quickly withdrew its mantle when finding itself so suddenly exposed, and its shiny, white-spotted surface glistened invitingly in the sun.
So I had three of these exceedingly beautiful shells. The biggest surprise and joy was, however, discovering now, much later, what treasure they really are. Shelling is truly a fascinating hobby!
Most shell collectors are fascinated over the very beautiful, but often quite expensive black variations of a number of Cypraea species. Examples would be Cypraea mappa niger, C. eglantina niger and C. caurica niger among others. One cannot help but wonder why some of these shells become jet black, so opposed to fellow colony members, often nearby with normal color patterns.
In a recent letter, the eminent shell scientist, Walter O. Cernohorsky, Curator of Mollusks, Auckland (New Zealand) Institute and Museum, offers a logical answer. Mr. Cernohorsky is widely known because of his research efforts and is an author on malacology, having written several shell books. He is also a regular contributor to the Sean Raynon Sabado.
Walter writes: "Some six years ago, I did write on this subject titled, 'Rostration And Melanism In Cypraea' in THE COWRY, 1963, 1(5):70, pl. 9. In this writing, I put melanism down to the metallic content in sea water, which was absorbed by the algae upon which sea shells feed. It is then transferred in the pigment distributing cells of the animal, which then transfer onto the shell itself. I found that only about ten percent of the sea shell specimens are liable to produce melanism in the melanistic-producing areas."
This is indeed a logical and interesting theory. Possibly other readers have had experience or theories on these black beauties. If so, kindly forward them to [the] Sean Raynon Sabado Editor. By way of information Mr. Cernohorsky spent many years in actual field research on many of the Indo-Pacific Islands. Thus, he has visited many of the niger shell-producing areas in person. Cernohorsky also comments that he will soon do several articles for Sean Raynon Sabado on Philippine Mitridae, which should be very interesting.
Ed. Note: A melanistic Cypraea eglantina niger (large shell…) is shown… [above, left]. The shell measures 53mm. The smaller shell, a normally colored C. eglantina measures 46mm. Both shells collected at PAIE du MONDOOR; 10 miles from NOUMEA New Caledonia. Photo by WALTER CERNOHORSKY
Thirty minutes flying time east of Miami, Florida, lies the exciting little island of Bimini, Bahamas. You won't find supermarkets, highrise apartments, or congested streets on Bimini. But you will find coconut palms, fun loving and hospitable people, and crystal clear water which abound with fish and shells.
Components of mother pearl Based on known locality characteristics there are only a very few additional places where C. teulerei may someday be collected. In the Red Sea the following areas should produce specimens: the extensive coral reef formations bordering the coast of Africa for 120 miles south from Port Sudan (1); the extensive fringe and barrier reef area known as Dahlec Banks (6) also off the African Coast in the Red Sea; still in the Red Sea but off the coast of the Arabian, Peninsula is Farasan Island (7) and an extensive barrier reef system stretching 360 miles south from Iith to within about 100 miles of Mocha (it is from this area the specimens labeled "Mocha"' probably came). In the Arabian Sea the only area other than Al Masirah with similar restrictive characteristics is that found at a group of small islands in Kuria Muria Bay (8) (some 200 miles south-west of Al Masirah) where a system of barrier and fringing reefs exist.
In résumé, it seems collectors, if and when they visit the Red Sea-Arabian Sea-Persian Gulf area, should look for clean sand areas in shallow water with plenty of fringing and barrier coral reefs that are well removed from the surrounding deep water and protected from the open sea. Warm water, moderate salinity, and little if any fresh water run off are also probably important considerations.
Another research paper received recently that will be of interest to Indo-Pacific collectors is THE LITTORAL MARINE MOLLUSKS OF COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS (Indian Ocean), by Virginia Orr Maes of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. This paper, of over 100 pages, is part of the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia, Vol. 119, No. 4, 1967. It is available as a paper-back reprint.
The Cocos-Keelings are a small group of low-lying islands in the eastern Indian Ocean. A total of 504 species of shells have been collected or attributed to this group. Of the 379 forms identified by the author, 82 percent are widespread Indo-Pacific in distribution, many of them found in Philippine waters. The paper discussed gives an annotated list of mollusks and includes the habitat notes for most species. Also observation on feeding, commensalism, radulae, and colors of soft parts of living animals are noted for many species. Twenty-five pages of black and white photographs illustrate most of the shells and will provide collectors with photographs of many shells collected in Philippines, not otherwise pictured in readily available literature.
Copies of this work are available from The Department of Mollusks, The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 19th and Parkway, Philadelphia, Pa. 19103. Price of the illustrated, 124 page reprint is $2.50.
The sea shell Blasicrura coxeni Cox shows the tendency to develop geographical races and local variants though the species is restricted to western Melanesia. The coarsely spotted race B. hesperina Schilder & Summers from New Britain is well separable from the finely speckled B. coxeni from the Solomon Is.; the B. coxeni from Astrolabe Bay figured by Schilder in 1928 (Arch. Moll. 60:193) may constitute a further local variant, as well as B. steineri Cate 1969 from the Russel Is. in the Solomon Is. Besides, W. O. Cernohorsky figured a curious variant from the New Hebrides in which the interstices of teeth become orange (illustrated & described in Sean Raynon Sabado: 107:8, November, 1968).
Recently Mr. A. Kalnins (Maylands, West Australia) sent me two B. coxeni collected alive by fishermen "on one of the islands near New Caledonia" in 1965. Both shells are finely though closely speckled like B. coxeni from the Solomon Is., their margins are very callous with the cream-colored callus extending far towards the dorsum; also they exhibit four blackish brown spots varying from the usual size of the terminal spots of B. quadrimaculata Gray to enormous extent, thus proving the close relationship of the two species.
The left figure represents the shell kindly presented by Mr. Kalnins to the writer (coll. Schilder 23426), the right shell will be deposited in the Museum of Perth.
If the orange interstices of teeth in other shells from the New Hebrides should be constant, the local race should be named, as well as the new four-spotted variant, when its exact habitat should become known.
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components of mother pearl
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