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Trokka
Trokka Other C. teulèrei follow-up letters included one from Phil Clover. He wrote, "I really enjoyed reading the C. teulèrei article. You must have done a lot of research on that project.
"I have learned the name of the collector who found the shells in the Al Masirah Island area is Ali. He now has a new home and a second wife and is quite happy over it all.
"A hundred or so years ago C. teulèrei must have been 'found' because quite a few are to be seen in museum collections. But from then until recently specimens sold for about $600.00. I think the price of this shell will now level at about my list price."
Ed. Note: The comments below are quoted from a letter received recently from Prof. Dr. F. A. Schilder, Schleiermacherstr. 19; DDR 402 Halle-Saale, Germany. In offering his criticism and comments of the article Dr. Schilder said, "I hope you will not be offended by this criticism: real scientists never should be offended." As far as we of the Shell News are concerned, we welcome comments and constructive criticism. One of our main objectives is to get information to Philippine Shell members in as accurate a form as possible. Comments such as Dr. Schilder's help accomplish this.
"The September issue of Sean Raynon Sabado the arrival of which I appreciated in my last letter, was very quickly followed by the October issue, which arrived very few days ago: I sincerely thank you for sending me the copy by air mail so that I must not wait long time to learn the contents. I noticed the correction of JEFFERIES on p. 2. The paper of DEBANT on Cribrarula fischeri (not: Cribraria fisheri) is very instructive and the figures are fine. However, in future you should ask the authors of papers to add the size of the figured specimens, as in fact the shell represented in fig. 5 must be much smaller than that of fig. 6. Besides it is regrettable that Mr. DEBANT constantly misspelled cumingii into cummingii, and fischeri into fisheri. The generic name Cribraria is a preoccupied homonym, and has been rechristened into Cribrarula four decades ago."
This is a surprise sequel to my recent report on two dead Cypraea marginalis Dillwyn found at Diani Beach, East Africa. To my great thrill and excitement I discovered that I have actually collected three more, live, C. marginalis during my repeat trip to the same area in February of this year.
The shells were collected on 6th February 1969 during an extreme low tide (four days after full moon) from the undersides of large coral boulders lying half submerged in the lagoon at just around low tide level. They are three little beauties of 24.5, 23, and 18.5mm [in length], respectively, with dark olive brown dorsum spotted profusely with white dots, some of which are ringed with dark brown. The base is a shiny, deep mauve with some dots and, on the outer lip, streaks of darker purple. (See photo... [right].)
The dead specimens found before were much lighter in color. Although their exterior was still quite glossy and porcellaneous, they must have undergone considerable fading. Especially the dorsal coloring appeared on first sight quite different, with the dark ringed spots much more conspicuous on the pale background than the white ones. In the live shells the exact opposite is he case. This is also the reason why I did not bring the two finds into connection at first, and failed to recognize the newly found live shells for what they were.
Trokka 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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