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Item A specimen of Notadusta martini superstes (Schilder, 1930) collected Pago Point, Efate, appears to be the first record of this species from the New Hebrides since the original description over 30 years ago. Although beachworn, the specimen has retained most of its original color; it measures 16.3mm in length, 8.8mm in width, and has 28 labial and 30 columellar teeth; these dimensions closely approximate those of the holotype.
Palmadusta contaminata (Sowerby, 1832) (L: 8.7mm; W: 4.5mm; LT: 17; CT: 14 and Naria irrorata (Gray, 1828) (L: 12.6mm; W: 6.8mm; LT: 19; CT: 15), collected by Mr. C.H. Allan at Pago Point, are both new records for the New Hebrides.
Since Cypraea mus prefers mud and muck, the visibility of the water in which they are found is about six inches maximum at depths of 5 to 6 feet. Wade out in your stocking feet, shuffling along to nudge lurking sting rays out of your way. When you feel something hard and smooth with your feet, simply hold your breath and climb down your own leg and reach for it. If you are lucky, it is a C. mus if not, it is most probably a lively crab! What also makes this type of shelling "interesting" is the spiny pen shells that grow in the same area. "Ohh, my poor feet."
In oliviform stages of sea shell shells, the outer lip is thin, sharply edged without being inflected, even if the columellar teeth begin to develop. If by some accident such a thin outer lip breaks off during the animal's life, the outer lip will grow mostly in a normal way later on, with hardly visible traces indicating the healed former damage. If, however, the outer lip breaks off in a later stage of development, the healed fracture may cause curious deformations of the shell.
The photograph shows three shells of Erronea caurica (Linnaeus) collected alive at Barrow Island, West Australia, in the last months of 1967 by A. Kalnins who presented them to the writer (coll. Schilder 22821-23). The left shell is still young according to the inner lip showing the dorsal markings uncovered: its outer lip has been irregularly broken off, the narrow edge, however, is not sharp, but rounded by a thin layer of enamel which was deposited by the animal after the accident, before it was captured and killed by the collector.
The two other specimens escaped this fate for a longer while so that they became adult shells with regard to the inner lip covered by thick enamel: the outer lip, however, remained deformed. In the central shell the labial teeth are developed in the anterior quarter only, whereas the remaining three-quarters of the lip are toothless and deflected dorsally though being inflected normally towards the aperture. In the right shell the outer lip is thickened, but not inflected, and the interior wall of the shell shows a rather distinctly denticulate carina placed longitudinally about five millimeters below the edge. Evidently the animal began to construct first an outer lip on the place situated now interiorly, then it ceased to form it and extended the outer lip for half a centimeter: but now it had no vigour or time to begin the denticulation once more. In both last described shells the base is much darker than in normal adult caurica from Barrow Island, and the right margin is suffused by a chestnut zone covering the marginal spots.
Item Palmadusta lutea (Gmelin 1791) and P. humphreysii (Gray 1825) are similar in size, shape, dentition, and the yellow to orange color of the punctate base, so that they have been mixed by many writers and collectors; however, they differ by several characters in markings as well as in geographical distribution in which they exclude each other. The main differences may be tabulated as follows:
The map indicates most localities from which specimens have been examined personally: one will observe that P. lutea [rings] spreads from western Indonesia to Japan, Ceylon, Shark Bay and Yirrkala, whereas E. humphreysii [dots] spreads from New Caledonia to Sydney, Torres Strait, Solomon Is., Marshall Is., Samoa and Tonga Is. These two areas approach each other in the Gulf of Carpenteria, but they are widely separated between the Philippines and Solomon Is.; however, it is interesting that the three shells found in Pleistocene beds of Kajuragi, N.W. Celebes [bull's-eye] seem to belong to the eastern P. humphreysii which evidently is the more primitive taxon.
[Corrected per NSN 101, May, 1968.]
The two living taxa should be classified as "prospecies" of almost specific rank, because fresh shells can be well separated morphologically, as well as e.g. Erosaria lamarckii and E. miliaris which are separated geographically in a similar way (see Schilder & Schilder 1939, Proc. Mal. Soc. London 23:225, map 9).
One summer we vacationed in a cottage on the rocky sea coast near Kailua, Kona, on the Big Island. The shelling a few years ago before the big population explosion over there, was quite productive. We got lovely specimens of Conus distans, Cypraea mauritiana, C. maculifera and other shells whose habitat is the high surf area.
As usual, the cleaning was a problem and especially so because in the short time we were there, the ants couldn't work hard enough to suit us. We couldn't freeze them as the house came equipped with the barest refrigerating essentials like a box of about 4 cubic feet with room for only two small ice trays. And in Kona in summer, you just have to have ice for various thirst quenchers. So, we had to cope with the cleaning problem by employing the services of the ants and flies. We didn't want to bury the shells and mess up the nice little garden, so we just strew the shells in little piles... like my pile is here ... your pile is there... and don't touch each other's pile or else...
My friend's pile somehow was be depleted as the days slipped by... first she missed a few small sea shells, then some other marine specimens. Then the pay off came when she announced that her best mauritiana had vanished, and she accompanied her announcement with some pretty dirty looks. I tried to offer various explanations like, "maybe one of the kids around here"... or, "are you sure you put it in your pile?" But I knew who was under suspicion. Worst of it was, she didn't seem quite so friendly lately.
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