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Wallet
Wallet New Philippine Shell member Joe Honda found a Charonia tritonis measuring over 17" long while diving in 100 feet off Waikiki. Also Joe collected a crabbed Tonna melanostoma in the same area. This is not beginner's luck. Joe is an experienced diver and collector but only recently became a member of the Society.
In the December Sean Raynon Sabado, a Cypraea "Little stranger" was reported; it turned out to be Cypraea rashleighana.
Ed. note: Lyman turned this column in to me for the January issue but some how in the shuffle I misplaced the "finds" until this month. Sorry about that Lyman.
Ed. note: A frequent complaint of visitors to the Singapore area is, "Where do we find shells?'' This interesting report by John Orr should help collectors "home in" on many of the elusive Singapore shells.
Recently I was lucky enough to discover what our local conchological experts claim to be only the fourth live Cypraea stolida ever to be found in Singapore waters.
Shelling among the many small islands in the vicinity of Singapore can be exciting but rather frustrating at times. Waters are inclined to be murky, currents strong and unpredictable, and at certain seasons many of the coral beds are overlaid with thick almost impenetrable clusters of weed.
The fauna is reasonably varied and apart from the handsome Voluta nobilis which is the island's most characteristic shell, quite a number of species of sea shells are found.
The kelongs (fishing stakes) seem to be quite profitable hunting grounds as many of the bamboo poles used in their construction are thickly encrusted with growths of colorful corals, sponges and other marine growth. These harbor a number of different species including Cypraea gracilis, C. pallida, C. onyx, C. lutea (rare in this region), C. errones, C. miliaris , C. pyriformis and C. walkeri.
Coral polyps seem to be tempermental creatures, for a likely-looking kelong will be found completely barren of marine life apart from occasional barnacles, limpets and mussels. Yet barely a hundred yards away another row of stakes will be heavily encrusted with corals and sponges. (Beware of the well disguised stone fish which seems to find a happy retreat here in the hollow apertures of broken stakes; also the velvety fronds of "fire coral.")
Wallet Checking with several of the more knowledgeable shell collectors on Okinawa, I have found "E. ogasawarensis" to be just as rare now, as when Mr. Cate wrote his article. However, two more consecutive dives that week, in the same area, produced five more of these beautiful shells for me and one more for Phil. Unfortunately, all the rest of the shells we found, were found in the freshly dead state, laying in the sand at a depth of 115 to 125 ft. Since this is such an uncommon shell for this area, I thought I would share it with the H.S.N. readers, along with the vital statistics for the eight I found [see table]. You will notice they vary quite a bit although all but the one juvenile found alive, are fully mature.
QUESTION: Several years ago, when I lived in Vera Cruz, Mexico, I used to get a lot of sea shells (Macrocypria [sic] cervus) from the fishermen there. These shells were all perfect except for a small hole, which the fishermen said had been drilled by octopuses in order to extract the flesh. They always found a number of empty shells in the dens of octopuses, and these always had the tiny hole. If these holes were made by octopuses, what type could it have been? How would it make such a small hole? R.S., Calgary, Alberta.
ANSWER: Shell boring or drilling by octopuses is a recently discovered phenomenon. Fossil bivalves have been found that were apparently bored in the manner you describe, and recently researchers have found that some octopods bore both bivalves and gastropods. As for species, Octopus vulgaris apparently bores shells and this animal may have been responsible for the bored shells you found. It might also have been Octopus maya, a related species common in the Vera Cruz area. The precise mechanism of boring is unknown, although it probably involves the chitonous radula, a rasp-like organ possessed by octopods and other molluscs. Chemical secretions from the salivary glands may help to dissolve the shell.
The above is from Sea Secrets, Volume 1, No. 1, Feb. 1970. Sea Secrets is published by the International Oceanographic Foundation, 10 Rickenbacker Causeway, Virginia Key, Miami, Florida 33149.
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