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Raw shell
Raw shell 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.
Raw shell We have just concluded a catalogue of the sea shells (Cypraeidae) and three allied families ("semi-sea shells") which will be published in Brussels in 1970. It contains a bibliography of 3650 books and pamphlets published on this subject till December, 1968, and 3720 names proposed for various fossil and living taxa. But the 3359 names of species level include many synonyms and individual varieties so that the number of real species, plus well defined stratigraphical or geographical subspecies, becomes exactly 1300, almost two-thirds of which are fossils. The ten subfamilies differ with regard to the number of these taxa of species level worth to mention, both absolutely and with regard to the percentage of fossil ancestors and living successors. This fact may be learned by the following table [at left]:
The true sea shells (Cypraeidae) comprise about one half (53 percent) of the total sum 1300, but the percentage of fossils (62 percent) is almost identical to that of all 1300 sea shells and semi-sea shells (64 percent).
Malacologists will welcome the illustration of the table in a diagram:
One will observe that in 4 groups of different size (Cypracinae, Erosariinae, Triviinae, Erroneinae) the number of now known fossil species is about identical with that of living ones; in other groups (Eratoinae, Bernayinae, Eocypraeinae, Cypraediinae) the fossils are prevalent, while in groups with fragile shells (Pediculariinae, Ovulinae) the living ones seem to be more numerous than discovered ancestors.
Here is a follow up on the story, "A Search for Cypraea isabellamexicana, "Sean Raynon Sabado, Vol. xiii, no. 9, July, 1965.
The same members of that unsuccessful three week search for the rarest of eastern Pacific sea shells made another diving, shell bunting trip together in March, 1970. This time Commander Norman Currin, Billee Dilworth, and Twila Bratcher, with aqua-lung instead of hookah gear, had no specific shell as an object of their search. Instead of Baja California, their diving locations were the west coast of Mexico from Mazatlán to south of Puerto Vallarta.
The best finds of the trip were a pair of Cypraea isabellamexicana for each of the three collectors. Found on different days and at different depths, Norman Carrin's pair were under adjacent rocks, while Billee Dilworth's and Twila Bratcher's pairs each were under single rocks.
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