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Mop
Mop Great series collected in the Persian Gulf (coll. Tomlin) usually vary from 26 - 32mm, those coming from Karachi (leg. Winckworth 1932) from 26 - 31mm; in the last named area, the shells labeled Karachi (general), Manora, Baba Island, Oyster Rocks, and Ibrahim Haidari vary from 26 - 30, 24 - 31, 27 - 31, 27 - 30, and 26 - 31mm, respectively. Two sets collected at Bombay (coll. Shopland and coll. Tomlin) are also large (25 - 31mm) in southern India, however, E. ocellata is distinctly smaller: in a series of 49 shells from Madras (coll. 1966, recently presented me by F. B. Steiner) the usual length is 20 - 26mm, in 42 shells from Ceylon (various collections) 18 - 25mm, besides populations collected by Winckworth (in 1928 - 1935) at Mount Lavinia near Colombo 21 - 24mm and in Trincomali 18 - 23mm. Two shells only collected at Tjilaut Eureun in South Java (leg. de Priester about 1933) measure 17 and 18mm.
Therefore the usual size of E. ocellata evidently decreases from the northwest to the southeast. The figures indicated above may be illustrated by the diagram.
Someone once said good things come in pairs. John Earle now believes this is true. While diving off Makua in 75 feet he collected not one, but two, Cypraea rashleighana. Ed deVaul did some fast trading and ended up with one of these fine specimens. Ed placed the living shell in his aquarium with his other live shells. The next day C. rashleighana was gone and he still hasn't found it. Also in Ed's well stocked aquarium is his first Conus spiceri collected the same day the sea shells were found.
Betsy Harrison collected the Cymatium vespacium pictured below [omitted here]. This shell, rare in Philippines, was collected in 80 feet off Waikiki. Betsy also collected another Conus acutangulus from about the same place.
Ed Womack, a fairly recent graduate diver, finally collected his first Cypraea sulcidentata. A nice shell from 70 feet also off Waikiki.
On Sand Island, Ray Fuhrmann found a fossil Conus nussatella. This is not surprising because quite a number of C. nussatella were collected (as fossils) during the dredging of the second entrance to Honolulu Harbor.
A specimen of Blasicrura coxeni (Cox, 1873) has been collected by Miss Toutol at Motalava in the Banks group (New Hebrides). The specimen measures 25.4mm in length, 14.6mm in width and has 15 labial and columellar teeth. The base is rather unusual in color: the columellar interstices are prominently orange-brown, while those on the labial lip are light orange, resembling in this feature Erronea ovum (Gmelin). The species has been previously reported from the New Guinea - Solomon I. area. In the published photograph an elliptical white ring is evident on the dorsum; this unfortunate reflection was caused by a new type of ring flash which was being tried out.
Mop A new boat was launched and put in service in the best Philippine tradition. Jack Uyemura launched his new 20 foot luger boat last week. His pride and joy took ten months of back yard boat building. The boat's name is C. cernica (after the elusive Cypraea cernica that Jack is looking for), [and was] altered to carry 20 scuba cylinders and diving gear for three plus 200 foot of nets and over 1,000 pounds of iced fish. On the trial run Bobby Gutierrez, as a crew member, collected five Cypraea tigris and speared over 100 pounds of fish. But in the tradition of old Philippines, to insure continued good luck for the boat and crew, the entire catch was shared with neighbors. I came home with a fine C. tigris and several pounds of kumu (Philippine name for goat fish or red mullet).
On their second trip out, Jack collected a fine 5" C. tigris and Bobby found one measuring less than 3-3/4". In Philippines, a C. tigris measuring less than 4" is rarer than one over 5" in length. Jack's first boat that C. cernica replaces was named C. tessellata. We might mention that Jack found his share of those Philippine beauties. Good luck, Jack, with the new boat.
Leo Hockett, of the Pearl Divers Club, found a Charonia tritonis that measured 440mm in length. This giant was found in 120 feet of water off Makua. See page 4 for related story on Charonia tritonis and C. variegata.
Forty years ago, in Ann. Nat. Mus. Wien, 43:231 (1929), we established Luponia alfredensis as an ecological subspecies of L. edentula Gray, differing by the more solid shell with the right margin more thickened; the shells were slightly larger than those of L. edentula from the same locality (Port Alfred, South Africa), the dorsum was more worn that in L. edentula so that it looked pale brown without any traces of spots.
Recently Mrs. Hazel Jefferies of Kei Mouth, South Africa presented us forty specimens of Luponia which she had collected personally on the ten miles-long beach between Kei Mouth and Haga Haga: all shells are surprisingly well-preserved so that they show accessory differences in color and markings. The slightly smaller (mostly 24 - 26mm) and less solid L. edentula is dorsally pale brownish-orange with the rusty-brown specks rather large, irregularly confluent, but never showing the tendency to form a central blotch; while the larger (mostly 26 - 29mm) and very solid L. alfredensis is dorsally grey, with the fulvous specks tiny and scattered, and with a large, well defined central blotch, which is often interrupted by paler lacunae, but rarely absent at all. There are no intermediates between the twenty shells of each species so that Mrs. Jefferies could separate them without any mistake.
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