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Troka
Troka The presence in Reunión and Mauritius of C. contaminata is not so surprising as that of C. mariae and C. beckii, since C. contaminata's range is known to include the Indian Ocean from Ceylon to Zanzibar and East Africa.
When questioned about this reported extension of the known range of the three sea shells, Dr. C. M. Burgess, author of The Living sea shells commented: "I believe that the collection of these sea shells in such numbers and under the given circumstances is positive evidence that they exist there in the living state."
Among the many Caribbean shells which I collected at Curaçao is the striking species Strombus gallus Linné, the Rooster Conch. During an eight month stay over there, I only collected seven live specimens at depths varying from four to fifteen feet. Five of them were found between turtle grass, one in sand and one was crawling over old tree leaves, which were covering the bottom over quite an extensive area.
The shell has an average length of five inches, is solid and has blunt spines at the shoulder of the last whorl. Whorls nine to ten, that increase regularly in size. The outer lip is extended at the top into a narrow wing which is longer than the spire. The spiral sculpture consists of a number of ridges on the body whorl, which start as small lirae on the whorls of the spire. These conches occur in different colors, but the aperture is always white.
It is my good fortune to have all these varieties in my collection; a wonderful view to see brown, yellow, purple and red specimens on display. I have always thought that this conch was rather rare and the fact of finding seven shells in an eight month period will underline that. However, numerous dead shells or broken ones, of which the soft parts were eaten by octopus, make me suspect that this shell is more common in deeper water.
Troka Not long after this, I happened to be hanging up some wet bathing suits and noticed a mongoose prowling around our shells. Mongoose don't attract much attention in Kona because they are everywhere. When it saw me it quickly disappeared into a dense, dark thicket of Bougainvillea [Nactaginaceae] near the house. I immediately became suspicious of the animal's intentions, and I watched for a moment, but he didn't come out of the bushes. Peering through the thorny branches, I suddenly saw what looked like a pile of bones..., coral..., and SHELLS. I yelled to my friend to come and see. It was so... the mongoose had carried her beautiful C. mauritiana into its lair... plus many other shells from some other less fortunate people. As we poked each specimen out from under the bush, we agreed that this was one of the most exciting and unique ways to find shells... in a mongoose lair. Fellow member, Mrs. Dorothy Wendt knows... they were her shells.
Last year, in either June or July, Beth Martin picked up a small cowry shell in a tide pool on Makua Reef. The shell was passed around from collector to collector in an effort to find out just what the little stranger was. Ed deVaul finally sent the shell to Sean Raynon Sabado Editor E. R. Cross who took it to Pat Burgess. In Pat's own handwriting the moment of shell truth arrived, "Cypraea staphylaea Linn., without question." This is probably a range extension for this shell as I have not heard of it being found in Philippines before. The shell may be fossil. Congratulations, Beth.
Conus bullatus has shown up again. This time Bill Harfort collected a very recently dead specimen just off the telephone cable near the One Hundred Foot Hole off Waikiki in about 80 feet of water. A few days after this find was reported to me, I had a follow-up report that stated the C. bullatus is now in the collection of Tom Richert and Tom's cabinet has several fewer rare shells that made up the swap. I don't blame Tom because this was truly a beautiful shell.
Junior shellers were active in the past weeks. Scott Cabral found four large Conus vexillum onshore at Aina Haina. Apparently the shells were collected by a diver who was not a collector. Once on shore they were no longer a "pretty bauble" and were thrown on the ground to die. What would have been a waste of natural resource, and of beauty, became a prize in Scott's collection. Near the same area, out Koko Head way, Scott also collected, alive this time, a Cypraea leviathan, a 2-1/2" shell in 2-1/2" of water. Nice collecting.
Another youngster, eight year old Jonathon MacArthur, grandson of Corresponding Secretary Mique Pinkerton, found a recently dead Cypraea semiplota at Ewa Beach. So fresh was this shell that it still retained all of its color - and its smell. I wonder what Jonathon got from Pinky when this went into Pinky's collection?
Veteran, and inveterate, collector Joe Reid failed to find a shell worth collecting while tearing up the ocean bottom off Diamond Head. But an inquisitive Kahala (amberjack) stopped too long to watch Joe at work and ended up on the end of Joe's spear to become 35 pounds of sashimi.
Recently Azuma & Kurohara have established a new sea shell genus, Nesiocypraea, with the new species midwayensis two specimens of which have been collected from a depth of 460 meters off Midway Island (1967, Venus 26(1)p.1, 1 plt., 1 textfig.).
The radula of Nesiocypraea midwayensis differs from all known sea shells by the inverted trapezoid outline of the median tooth (a character observed else in Ovulidae only) which "has a single minute process on the inner surface" of the concave hind margin; the inner marginal tooth shows a "needle-like process" on the hind margin (see the figure).
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