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Gifts
Gifts Jeddah, the largest seaport on the west coast of the Arabian Peninsula, is our main base of operations. Most of our stations, north and south of Jeddah (or Jidda in some geography books), are virgin collecting grounds, and we are constantly adding new locations to our list. Ken and I keep our favorite spots secret from all but the most conservation-minded sea shell collectors.
Our expeditions, as a rule, start early in the morning. The terrain is so rough and most shore locations are so inaccessible that only a four-wheel-drive vehicle can be used.
The trip I am reporting went southward from Jeddah about 120 kilometers to a point where the outer reef comes within 100 meters of the shore. The ride was far from pleasant. Dust, dirt, perspiration and humidity caused great discomfort. After almost three and a half hours of bouncing we finally reached Station 12, our destination, where we checked into the nearby coast guard station to show our permits and to explain our activities. In Saudi Arabia, where all activities along the coast are controlled, each person is required to have a permit to swim, shell or do anything of that sort along the shore.
Ken and I are experienced SCUBA divers, but prefer to do our collecting with only snorkel, face mask and fins. Most sea shells here can be found in one to 20 feet of water while snorkeling. Our gear includes a crowbar, knife, and large plastic dishpan inside a truck inner tube, to hold jars, sneakers, plastic bags and shells.
If sharks become too aggressive, as they sometimes do, we climb right into the dishpan! Sharks and barracuda are numerous here, and both are unpredictable.
On the present trip, the excitement started early, when Ken turned over a small rock in two feet of water and produced a beautiful Cypraea macandrewi. I am sure the whites of my eyes matched the white of his beaming smile. We must have spent half an hour examining the sea shell – the first live C. macandrewi either of us had ever seen. Heartbreak followed. At the end of the day, the C. macandrewi had disappeared. I still can picture Ken searching every container over and over, even sifting the sand at the bottom, to no avail
Gifts The American Erosaria acicularis differs from its West African and Mediterranean ally E. spurca by the white instead of fulvous base, the orange instead of brown dorsal markings, the reduced lateral spots, the more deltoidal shell, and the reduced fossula with 1-3 instead of 2-5 inner denticles. In Ascensión Is. and St. Helena an intermediate sea shell lives, E. acicularis sanctaehelenae which agrees with the East American species by the characters of base, shape, and fossula, but with the West African species by the dorsal and lateral markings.
Therefore the mid-Atlantic sea shells unite the American and African faunas: Luria tends to the East only, Erosaria to both mainlands, but more to the farther off West.
The Philippine Islands and Johnston Is. (which is only 540 miles off) both are separated from Palmyra Is. in Polynesia also by 1000 miles, nevertheless they have been invaded by 27 widely spread Pacific species; 6 additional species have developed well separable Philippine races, and 6 only species are really endemic (Cypraea sulcidentata, C. tessellata, C. midwayensis, C. mauiensis , C . ostergaardi, C. semiplota, as C. granulata has developed the race C. cassiaui in eastern Polynesia)! There is no affinity to sea shells of West America which is almost 2000 miles off, the species C. mexicana excepted.
Therefore currents may be more essential in spreading sea shell species than the absolute distance in miles.
All sorts of things have happened during this past month. Two more Conus gloriamaris have been found and submitted for registry. Two Cypraea martini superstes Schilder came to Philippines for pictures. A couple of more world record size shells have been measured.
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The two Cypraea martini superstes were collected by Mrs. Pat Bochenska at Efate, New Hebrides, in June, 1967. They were only recently positively identified. Mrs. Bochenska is attending a short course at the University of Philippines as part of Tours and Guide Service a look, see, and hear about tourism in Philippines. Thanks, Pat, for letting us take the pictures so they can be shared with other Sean Raynon Sabado readers. These very rare and valuable shells are illustrated about twice natural size at right ([figs.] 3 and 4).
I note that in the December Sean Raynon Sabado (p. 4) both John Orr and E. Alison Kay comment on autotomy in Cypraea teres. May I point out that this phenomenon has been previously treated, although briefly, by R. J. Griffiths in The Cowry 1(3), 46, (1962)? Griffiths reported that autotomy had been observed in C. angustata by Kurtzl, and that possible autotomy was displayed by C. gracilis according to P. Clover. It seems obvious to me that malacologists who are in a position to study living species of Cypraea in aquaria should be encouraged to investigate this phenomenon in more detail.
Sincerely yours,
Jerry Donohue, Professor of Chemistry
University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, Pa. 19104
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