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Earrings
Earrings 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.
Earrings Prosobranch veligers1 are among the most beautiful and interesting organisms living in Philippines's inshore plankton. Their diversity in form and color present a continual source of delight and discovery to both amateur and professional students of the mollusks.
The longest-lived and largest number of planktonic veligers are found in tropical and subtropical marine areas simply because favorable amounts of sunlight and food prevail and because water temperature in these marine areas does not vary as greatly as in temperate areas. It follows, then, that in Philippines we have an unusual opportunity to gather an enormous amount of information concerning molluscan life histories.
Who would use this information?
Experimental embryologists in search of new experimental organisms with which they can study developmental phenomena.
Ecologists who seek to understand nutrition and food webs as they occur in oceanic and estuarine areas.
Pollution specialists who seek animal indicators of water quality.
People who seek to establish regions of aquaculture in which mollusks, fish or crustaceans can be farmed to feed the increasing human population.
Zoologists who want to learn the extent to which a species can be distributed in a specific region.
Photo - Taylor
Figure 1 depicts a presetllement veliger of Serpulorbis nov. sp. with all
appropriate larval structures labelled. Serpulorbis nov. sp., presetllement veliger.
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b. beak. c. columella, e. eye, es. esophagus, f. foot, fg. food groove, h. larval
heart, i. intestine, ldg. larval digestive gland, m. mouth, poc. post-oral cilia,
prc. pre-oral cilia, ss. style sac, t. cephalic tentacle, vldg. ventral lobe
of digestive gland.
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