American conchologist : quarterly bulletin of the Conchologists of America, Inc

CONCHOLOGISTS

OF AMERICA, INC.

In 1972, a group of shell collectors saw the need for a national or¬
ganization devoted to the interests of shell collectors; to the beauty of
shells, to their scientific aspects, and to the collecting and preservation of
mollusks. This was the start of COA. Our membership includes novices,
advanced collectors, scientists, and shell dealers from around the world.
In 1995, COA adopted a conservation resolution: Whereas there are an
estimated 100,000 species of living mollusks, many of great economic,
ecological, and cultural importance to humans and whereas habitat de¬
struction and commercial fisheries have had serious effects on mollusk
populations worldwide, and whereas modern conchology continues the
tradition of amateur naturalists exploring and documenting the natural
world, be it resolved that the Conchologists of America endorses respon¬
sible scientific collecting as a means of monitoring the status of mollusk
species and populations and promoting informed decision making in
regulatory processes intended to safeguard mollusks and their habitats.

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EDITORIAL BOARD

Donald Dan
Emilio Garcia

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June 2010

American Conchologist

Page 3

In This Issue

Letters and Comments-

Bocas del Toro revisited. A follow-up of Olsson &

McGinty’s report on the Panamanian Archipelago
by Emilio F. Garcia-4

A New Shell Display by Bobbi Cordy-12

In Memoriam-13

Dealer Directory-14

Pheasant Snails ( Phasianella ) by Robert Robertson-17

June Huie by Ardeth Hardin-22

What goes around comes around; Jacksonville Shell Club
to fund annual COA Academic Grant

by Harry G. Lee-23

2010 Shell Shows and Related Evenets (Aug - Dec)
by Donald Dan-24

The World’s Smallest (and Probably Ugliest) Shell Collector
by Tom Eichhorst-25

Shell Show Winners-26

Last Call for Shellebration Boston: COA 2010-30

Living Fossils by Zvi Orlin-33

Front cover: Hydatina physis (Linnaeus, 1758), photo¬
graphed in shallow water off Leyte Island, Philippines. The
shell is about 45mm in length. The striped paper bubble
lives in tropical waters with a circumglobal distribution and
feeds on polychaete worms and mollusks. It lacks an oper¬
culum and is unable to retract its entire body into the shell.
This photograph is courtesy of Guido & Philippe Poppe. ©
Guido & Philippe Poppe - www.poppe-images.com

Back Cover: Opisthostoma mirabile E.A. Smith, 1893,
4.5mm, from a limestone outcrop in the Kinabatangan Val¬
ley, Sabah, Malaysia. This tropical rainforest dweller has
an extremely limited range and entire populations, maybe
species, can be limited to just a few rocks. Quarrying, fire,
and logging have destroyed much of this unique land snail’s
habitat. Photograph courtesy of Simon’s Specimen Shells,
Ltd., www.simon’s-specimen-shells.com

Editor’s comments:

We have another eclectic gathering of articles for this
issue, with hopefully something for everyone.

Emilio Garcia reports on a trip to Bocas del Toro,
a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean, off the northwest
coast of Panama, where few people have visited much less
scientifically sampled for mollusks. As usual, he provides an
interesting article and great images.

Next we have a short piece by Bobbi Cordy on a
new shell display (Johnson/Cordy Hall of Mollusks) she
and husband Jim have established at the Brevard Museum
of History and Natural Science. Bobbi also mentions the
upcoming Space Coast Seashell Festival in Melbourne,
Florida, 15-16 January 2011 and the 2011 COA convention
that will be held in Port Canaveral, Florida, 13-17 July 2011.

Sadly we have more members listed in the “In
Memoriam” box.

The “Dealers Directory” does not have anyone
new this issue, but I think it should be pointed out that these
dealers support COA by their participation in shell shows and
by purchasing ads in American Conchologist. They certainly
deserve your consideration for business before a dealer who
does not support our organization. We also have a reminder
here of the Philadelphia Shell Show, 9-10 October 2010.

Next we have an entry by Robert Robertson. With
his Curator Emeritus status from the Academy of Natural
Sciences in Philadelphia, he seems to have more time to write
for our publication, certainly our gain. This time he provides
interesting insight into the intricately patterned and sometimes
brightly colored pheasant shells. The color plates will go a
long way toward explaining why this group can be so difficult
to properly identify.

Our next entry is a most welcome report by Harry
Fee, who tells us a bit of history of the Jacksonville Shell
Club and then, after talking about club goals and activities,
throws in an O’Henry ending by announcing that the club has
established a $10,000 research grant for COA. Thank you
Jacksonville Shell Club!

We then have the Donald Dan report on upcoming
shell shows around the world, followed by a short article on
the smallest and ugliest shell collector. Then we have the
recent winners at various shell shows and the last promotional
piece for the 2010 COA convention. It looks like it will be a
great event, see you there.

Finally we have an article from Zvi Orlin on “living
fossils.” We all think we know what this means, but maybe
there will be something in this piece to surprise most readers.
One of the “living fossils”
mentioned by Zvi is Spirula
spirula. I am sure this shell is
known to most of us, but just
in case, here is an image of a
20mm S. spirula that just didn’t
fit into the space for the article.

Page 4

Vol. 38, No. 2

Bocas del Toro revisited. A follow-up of Olsson
& McGinty’s report on the Panamanian

Archipelago

Emilio Fabian Garcia

Bocas del Toro is an archipelago located off the
northwestern coast of Panama, approximately 9°20’N, 82°15’W.
It is composed of five larger islands, with the main town of Bocas
located on Isla Colon. In 1917 the well-known malacologist Axel
A. Olsson went to the archipelago on a collecting trip because he
thought the malacological fauna of the area was being ignored.
He returned to the archipelago in 1920 to augment the previous
collection, and a third and final time in 1953. On this last trip he
was accompanied by Tom McGinty and Jay Weber. In 1958 Olsson
and McGinty published the results of their collection efforts, which
included the description of more than 30 new species of mollusks.

As the authors pointed out in their publication, their best
collecting was on the east side of Isla Colon. Much of the material
collected in this zone consisting of “...beach drift, carefully
selected in the field, and which on sorting and picking proved
extremely rich, especially in the smaller species...” adding, “...
it is evident from the large number of species obtained by us in
a relatively small time that the Bocas fauna is unusually rich and
would repay more extensive work be done.” (p.9). I decided to
follow their advice more than 50 years after their last expedition.

I had traveled to Panama on several collecting trips in the
1990s, and tried to visit Bocas del Toro on two occasions, but never
succeeded. My opportunity arrived in August 2004 when a group
of colleagues from the Biology Department at the University of
Louisiana at Lafayette and I were invited for a Marine Invertebrate
Taxonomy Workshop by Dr. Rachel Collin, director of the Bocas
del Toro Research Station of the Smithsonian Tropical Research
Institute (STRI). We stayed for a week at the station in Isla Colon,
where the Smithsonian maintains splendid research facilities. I
had studied Olsson & McGinty’s paper carefully every time I
thought I was going to make it to Bocas, so thanks to the authors’
thoroughness I knew exactly where to go. They stated, “...at this
time our best collecting grounds were found to be along the east
side of the island [Colon], between Puss Head Point and Long Bay
Point or about five to six kilometers north of the city of Bocas del
Toro.” (p.9) As it turned out, this location was approximately three
kilometers (a short bike ride) from the STRI station.

Olsson & McGinty also warned the reader about the
poorer areas: “In contrast to the excellent collecting found on the
east side of the island, that of the lee shore, which is fringed by
mangrove, proved poor.” (p.9) They were correct, but I did some
snorkeling in the area and discovered some unreported species.
Nevertheless, every morning after breakfast my first chore was to
get on the bicycle provided by STRI and pedal the three muddy
kilometers to the area where little beaches with great drift were to
be found. I would use the remainder of my available time (if I was
not going on other collecting jaunts with the group) looking under
the microscope, “sorting and picking” as Olsson and McGinty had

done, probably only two kms south of where I was, thinking, as
they had, how “extremely rich” the drift was.

My main desire for going to Bocas del Toro was to find
some of the species described by the authors in their locus typicus ,
and to see if the area was still as rich as they had experienced
it to be. Both of these goals were attained, but also a welcome
lagniappe resulted from this collection. A lagniappe , by the way,
is an unexpected “extra’ given to a person by a merchant at the
time of a purchase. It is a commonly used word in Cajun country
(AKA “who dat” country), in southwestern Louisiana, where I
live.

The material I gathered in the in Bocas during my
week-long stay (actually only about five full days) in 2004 was
augmented in 2008 when Will Schmidt, a colleague who works
in the same lab where I do my photography, went to Bocas and
brought me a pound of “grunge” from the exact area where I had
collected in 2004. he added to this in 2009, when he and Natalia
Arakaki, another colleague, brought me two more pounds.

Approximately 207 species belonging to 65 families
have been catalogued. The best represented were Columbellidae
(18) and Fissurellidae (16), and 42 families were represented by
only 1 or 2 species. Because I dedicated a large portion of time in
gathering and sorting shells collected at the drift line, the paucity
of larger species, when compared with Olsson & McGinty’s
finds, should not surprise anyone. For example, while the authors
list 9 species for Ranellidae and 20 for Muricidae, I list 1 and 5
respectively. On the other hand, I list six species for Triphoridae
vs. four by them. The lagniappe that resulted from my few days
of collecting and two separate single trips to the beach by my two
colleagues was very much of a surprise, as 37 of the fully identified
species had not been reported by Olsson and McGinty. These, as
well as other rather arbitrarily selected species that I was not able
to identify are marked in the list that follows by one asterisk. The
latter were obviously not found in the authors’ list, either because
of generic placement or unusual conchological features. Other
unidentified species were left unmarked; however, some of them,
when identified, may eventually turn out to be new for the area.
The 33 species that had not been reported from Panama before are
marked with two asterisks. All boldfaced taxa are pictured in this
article

Of particular interest is Parvanachis sp. aff. nisitella
(Duclos, 1840) (figs. 28-29), which seems to be an unidentified
species. Olsson & McGinty must have collected it, as it is common
in the drift, but they may have identified it as “ Anachis obesa (C.
B. Adams).” Parvanachis obesa does inhabit Bocas del Toro, but
it has a different profile from its congener. Compare figs. 26-27
and 28-29).

Another interesting species is Decipifus sixaolus, one of

June 2010

American Conchologist

Page 5

Bocas del Toro

Attanhc Ocean

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CrtCUtiM

Pacific Ocean

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the new species described by Olsson & McGinty.

They described and pictured (figs. 3 and 3a), the
species as being “colored white or brown;” however,
when I compared the very few specimens of the two
color forms I noticed some differences. To have
a better sense of what was happening I borrowed the Decipifus
specimens in the collection of Dr Harry G. Lee, which included
specimens from the Virgin Islands, Florida, and Yucatan. The
“white” specimens run from pure white (Florida, H.G. Lee col.) to
different degrees of brown markings, but they all seemed to have
a larger protoconch, more pronounced shoulders, and stronger
ornamentation than the “brown” specimens. Compare figs. 23
and 24-25). This is a very preliminary assessment because all of
the specimens were collected empty and had different degrees of
erosion, but the two “forms” deserve closer scrutiny.

The third species I should like to emphasize is Arene
tamsiana (Philippi, 1852:16) (figs. 2-3). When I first tried to
compare this puzzling species with other western Atlantic Arene
I came up empty-handed, so I sent the specimen to Dr. James
McLean (LACM), who has identified it as such. The species
was originally described from Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, and
has remained a little-known taxon since its description. Other
Venezuelan mollusks not reported from Panama before, have shown
up in Bocas del Toro: Barleeia creutzbergi (Jong & Coomans,
1988), Caelatura gerhardtae (Jong & Coomans, 1988), Decipifus
kristenseni Jong & Coomans, 1988, and Conus archetypus Crosse,
1865. This latter taxon will be discussed in a separate article in the
August issue of American Conchologist.

From the material collected by us in such a relatively
short time, I would not be off the mark if I finish this article by
giving the same advice Olsson & McGinty gave: it “would repay
more extensive work be done.”

The identification of so many relatively obscure species required
the help of friends and colleagues. My deepest thanks go to Harry
G. Lee, of Jacksonville, Florida, who provided requested literature
and specimens of Decipifus from his collection. Dr. Lee also
helped with the identification of some troublesome species. I
am also indebted to Henk H. Dijkstra (ZMA), William G. Lyons,

\ , ■

F : - Pt-gXia '

KjMPOff .

James McLean (LACM), Kevin Monsecour, Robert Robertson
(ANSP) and Paul Valentich-Scott (SBMNH), who corroborated or
provided identification of some species.

REFERENCES

Lee, H. G. 2009. “Marine shells of northeast Florida,” Jacksonville Shell
Club, Jacksonville, 204 pp.

Olsson, A. A. & T. L. McGinty. 1958. Recent marine mollusks from the
Caribbean coast of Panama with the description of some new genera and
species, Bulletins of American Paleontology 39: 1-58, pis. 1-5.

Philippi, R. A. 1852. Die Gattung Delphinula, Systematisches
Conchylien-Cabinet (2)2:1+ 28 pp., pis. 1-5.

Redfern, C. 2001. “Bahamian Seashells,” ix + 280 pp., 124 pis.
Bahamianseashells.com, Boca Raton, Florida.

Emilio Fabian Garcia
115 Oak Crest Dr.

Lafayette, LA 70503
Efg2112@louisiana. edu

Calendar membership (Jan - Dec) = $25 (USA)
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Quarterly Journal of the Conchold gists i>f America, Inc.

Page 6

Vol. 38, No. 2

Bocas del Toro Plate 1

June 2010

American Conchologist

Page 7

Bocas del Toro Plate 2

Page 8

Vol. 38, No. 2

Bocas del Toro Plate 3

June 2010

American Conchologist

Page 9

Bocas del Toro Plate 4

Page 10

Vol. 38, No. 2

Plate 1, Figures 1-17

1. Hemitoma emarginata (Blainville, 1825), 9°19’52. 6”N, 82°15’17.7”W, 1-1.5m, 15.3mm (EFG 26842). 2-3. Arene tamsiana
(Philippi, 1852), 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon Is., drift, 5.9mm (EFG 25599). 4. Turritella marianopsis Petuch, 1990, 9°22.027’N,
82°14.336’W, Colon, drift, 26.1mm (EFG 25565). 5-6. Barleeia creutzbergi (Jong & Coomans, 1988), 9°21 , 47.62 ,, N, 82°14’22. 8”W,
Colon, drift, 2.3mm (EFG 29346). 7. Caelaturagerhardtae (Jong & Coomans, 1988), 9°21 ’47.62”N, 82°14’22.8”W, Colon, drift, 2.4mm
(EFG 29345). 8. Schwartziella bryerea of Redfern? not Montagu, 9°2r47.62 ,, N,82°14 , 22.8 ,, W, Colon, drift, 4.3mm (EFG 29494).
9. Epitonium phymanthi Robertson, 1994, 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon, drift, 10mm (EFG 25629). 10. Epitonium tiburonense
Clench & Turner, 1952, 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon, drift, 5mm (EFG 25603). 11. Cerithiopsis albovittata (C.B. Adams, 1850),
9°21 , 47.62 ,, N, 82°14’22.8”W, Colon, drift, 2mm (EFG 29317). 12. Cerithiopsis prieguei Rolan & Espinosa, 1996, 9°21 , 47.62 ,, N,
82°14’22.8”W, Colon, drift, 1,75mm (EFG29316). 13. Monophorusolivaceus (C.B. Adams, 1850), 9°21 ’47.62”N, 82°14 , 22.8 ,, W, Colon,
drift, 4.9mm (EFG 29470). 14. Similiphora intermedia (C.B. Adams, 1850), 9°21 , 47.62 ,, N, 82°14 , 22.8 ,, W, Colon, drift, 3.6mm (EFG
29471). 15. Aesopus stearnsii (Tryon, 1833), 9 0 21’47.62”N, 82°14’22.8”W, Colon, drift, 3.8mm (EFG 29509). 16-17. Costoanachis
sertularium (d’Orbigny, 1841), 9°21 , 47.62 ,, N, 82°14 , 22.8 ,, W, Colon, drift, 9.3mm (EFG 25575).

Plate 2, Figures 18-31

18-19. Costoanachis catenata (Sowerby 1,1844), 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon, drift, 7.9mm (EFG 25549). 20-21. Costoanachis
sparsa (Reeve, 1859), 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon, drift, 7.8 mm (EFG 25574). 22. Decipifus kristenseni Jong & Coomans,
1988, 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon, drift, 3.9mm (EFG 29461). 23. Decipifus sixaolus Olsson & McGinty, 1958, 9°22.027’N,
82°14.336’W, Colon, drift, 3.6mm (EFG 29459). 24-25. Decipifus sixaolus Olsson & McGinty, 1958, 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon,
drift, 4.3mm (EFG 29459). 26-27. Parvanachis obesa (C.B. Adams, 1845), 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon, drift, 4.8mm (EFG
25547). 28-29. Parvanachis sp. aff. nisitella (Duclos, 1840), 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336 , W, Colon, drift, 4.2mm, (EFG 25550). 30-31.
Steironepion maculatum (C.B. Adams, 1850), 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon, drift, 4.5mm, (EFG 29463).

Plate 3, Figures 32-47

32. Steironepion minus (C.B. Adams, 1845), 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon, drift, 4.7mm (EFG 29458). 33-34 .Volvarina heterozona
(Jousseaume, 1857), 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon, drift, 5.3mm (EFG 29500). 35-36. Volvarina rubella (C.B. Adams, 1845),
9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon, drift, 3.9mm (29499). 37-38 .Volvarina sp. , Pondsuck Reef, Almirante Is., 7mm (EFG 25711). 39-
40. Glyphoturris rugirima (Dali, 1889), 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon, drift, 4.5mm (EFG 29452). 41-42. Strictispira solida (C.B.
Adams, 1850), 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon, drift, 10.2mm, (EFG 25573). 43-44. Psilaxis krebsii (Morch, 1875), 9°22.027’N,

82°14.336’W, Colon, drift, 3mm (EFG 25627). 45. Turbonilla levis (C.B. Adams, 1850), 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon, drift, 4.1mm
(EFG 29328). 46. Turbonilla (Strioturbonilla) sp. B of Lee (2009), 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon, drift 4.6mm (EFG 29478). 47.
Teinostoma sp. A., 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon, drift, 2.2mm (EFG 29326).

Plate 4, Figures 48-63

48. Caecum insularum Moore , 1970, 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon, drift, 4mm (EFG 29511). 49. Caecum cycloferum Folin, 1867,
9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon, drift, 3mm (EFG 29510). 50. Caecum jucundum Folin, 1867, 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon,
drift, 2mm (EFG 29312). 51. Meioceras ryssotitum Folin, 1867, 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon, drift, 1.7mm (EFG 29349). 52-53.
Eulimostraca sp., 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Colon, drift, 2.3mm (EFG 29335). 54 Botula fusca (Gmelin, 1791), Hospital Pt., Colon,
9°20 , 01.9”N, 82°13 , 07.7 ,, W, 24.7mm (EFG 25682). 55. Lithophaga bisulcata (d’Orbigny, 1853), Hospital Pt., Colon, 9°20’01.9”N,
82°13’07.7”W, 31mm (EFG 25684). 56. Caribachlamys ornata (Lamarck, 1819), off resort area, Bocas del Drago, NW Colon, in
3-10m, 17.5mm (EFG 25721). 57. Leptopecten bavayi (Dautzenberg 1900), Almirante pilings, Almirante, 12.7mm (EFG 25731). 58-
59. Macoma pseudomera Dali & Simpson, 1901, Almirante pilings, off Almirante, 23.6mm (EFG 25685). 60. Semele purpurascens
(Gmelin, 1791), Cayo Adriana, 9°14.456’N, 82°10.413’W, in 3-10m, 25.7mm (EFG 25640). 61-62. Cyclinella tenuis (Recluz, 1852),
Almirante pilings, Almirante, 27.4mm (EFG 25686). 63. Gastrochaena ovata Sowerby 1,1834, off resort area, Bocas del Drago, NW
Colon, in 3-10m, 12.6mm (EFG25724). 64. Spengleria rostrata (Spengler, 1783), off resort area, Bocas del Drago, NW Colon, in
3-10m, 33.7mm (EFG 25729).

June 2010

American Conchologist

Page 11

LIST OF SPECIES COLLECTED IN BOCAS DEL TORO ARCHIPELAGO, PANAMA

Boldface taxa are pictured in this article.

Taxa with one asterisk (*) were not reported by Olsson & McGinty.

Taxa with two asterisks (**) have not been previously reported from Panama.

Lottia jamaicensis (Gmelin, 1791)

Patelloida pustulata (Helbling, 1779)

Diodora arcuata Sowerby II, 1862
Diodora cayenensis (Lamarck, 1822)

Diodora dysoni (Reeve, 1850)

Diodora fargoi (Olsson & McGinty, 1958)
Diodora listen (d’Orbigny, 1847)

Diodora minuta (Lamarck, 1822)

Diodora sayi Dali, 1899
Diodora variegata (Sowerby II, 1862)
Emarginula phrixodes Dali, 1927
Emarginulapumila (A. Adams, 1851)
Fissurella fascicularis Lamarck, 1822
Fissurella angusta (Gmelin, 1791)

Fissurella rosea (Gmelin, 1791)

**Hemitoma emarginata (Blainville, 1825)
(fig. 1)

Hemitoma octoradiata (Gmelin, 1791)
Lucapina suffusa (Reeve, 1850)

Calliostoma javanicum (Gmelin, 1791)

Arene riisei Rehder, 1843
**Arene tamsiana (Philippi, 1852) (figs. 2-3)
Eulithidium affine (C.B. Adams, 1850)
Eulithidium tessellatum (Potiez & Michaud,
1838)

Lithopoma caelata (Gmelin, 1791)

Parviturbo rehderi Pilsbry & McGinty, 1945
Nerita versicolor Gmelin, 1791
Smaragdia viridis (Linnaeus, 1758)

Bittiolum varium (Pfeiffer, 1840)

Cerithium eburneum Bruguiere, 1792
Cerithium lutosum Menke, 1828
Alaba incerta (d’Orbigny, 1841)

Angiola lineata (da Costa, 1778)

*Turritella marianopsis Petuch, 1990 (fig. 4)
Echinolittorina meleagris (Potiez & Michaud,
1838)

Echinolittorina ziczac (Gmelin, 1791)
Littoraria nebulosa (Lamarck, 1822)

Littoraria tessellata (Philippi, i847)

**Barleeia creutzbergi (Jong & Coomans,
1988) (figs. 5-6)

**Caelatura gerhardtae (Jong & Coomans,
1988) (fig. 7)

Lirobarleeia chiriquiensis (Olsson & McGinty,
1958)

*Caecum cycloferum Folin, 1867 (fig. 49)
**Caecum insularum Moore , 1970 (fig. 48)
*Caecum jucundum Folin, 1867 (fig. 50)

Caecumpulchellum Stimpson, 1851
*Meioceras ryssotitum Folin, 1867 (fig. 51)
Meioceras nitidum (Stimpson, 1851)

Rissoina cancellata Philippi, 1847
Rissoina decussata (Montagu, 1903)
SchwartzieUa bryerea (Montagu, 1893)
SchwartzieUa cf. bryerea (Montagu, 1893)
SchwartzieUafischeri (Desjardin, 1949)
**Schwartziella bryerea of Redfern (2001)?,
not Montagu( fig. 8)

Stosicia aberrans (C.B. Adams, 1850)

Zebina browniana (d’Orbigny, 1842)

Alvania auberiana (d’Orbigny, 1847)
Parviturboides interruptus (C.B. Adams,
1850)

Hydrobiid sp.

*Teinostoma species A (fig. 47)

Teinostoma species B
Vitrinella elegans Olsson & McGinty, 1958
Vitrinella helicoidea C.B. Adams, 1850
Hipponix antiquatum (Linnaeus, 1767)
Hipponix subrufus (Lamarck, 1819)

Niveria quadripunctata (Gray, 1827)

Pusula pediculus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Natica canrena (Linnaeus, 1758)

Polinices lacteus (Guilding, 1834)

Bursa granularis (Roding, 1798)

Cymatium martinianum (d’Orbigny, 1847)
Epitonium albidum (d’Orbigny, 1842)
Epitonium foliaceicosta (d’Orbigny, 1842)
Epitonium lamellosum (Lamarck, 1822)
**Epitoniumphymanthi Robertson, 1994 (fig.
9)

**Epitonium tiburonense Clench & Turner,
1952 (fig. 10)

Epitonium unifasciatum (Sowerby II, 1844)
Opalia hotessieriana (d’Orbigny, 1842)

Eulima bifasciata d’Orbigny, 1841
Eulima cf.fuscostrigata (Carpenter, 1864)
Eulima species A
Eulima species C
**Eulimostraca sp. (figs. 52-53)

Melanella eulimoides (C.B. Adams, 1850)
Melanella hypsela (Verrill & Bush, 1900)
Melanella cf.jamaicensis (C.B. Adams, 1845)
Melanella jamaicensis (C.B. Adams, 1845)
Melanella species 5 Jong & Coomans, 1988
Vitreolina arcuata (C.B. Adams, 1850)
**Cerithiopsis albovittata (C.B. Adams, 1850)
(fig. 11)

Cerithiopsis greenii (C.B. Adams, 1839)
Cerithiopsis vicola Dali & Bartsch, 1911
**Cerithiopsisprieguei Rolan & Espinosa,
1996 (fig. 12)

Retilaskeya bicolor (C.B. Adams, 1845)

Seila adamsi (H.C. Lea, 1845)

Metaxia abrupta (Watson, 1880)

**Monophorus olivaceus (C.B. Adams, 1850)
(fig. 13)

Marshallora nigrocincta (C.B. Adams, 1839)
Nototriphora decorata (C.B. Adams, 1850)
**Similiphora intermedia (C.B. Adams, 1850)
(Fig. 14)

“ Triphora ” species A

Dermomurexpauperculus (C.B. Adams, 1850)
Favartia alveata (Kiener, 1842)

Plicopurpura patula (Linnaeus, 1758)
Risomurex caribbaeus (Bartsch & Rehder,
1939)

Risomurex deformis (Reeve, 1846)
Coralliophila caribbaea Abbott, 1958
**Aesopus stearnsii (Tryon, 1833) (fig. 15)
Astyris lunata (Say, 1826)

Conella ovulata (Lamarck, 1822)

Costoanachis catenata (Sowerby 1,1844)

(figs. 18-19)

**Costoanachis sertularium (d’Orbigny,
1841) (figs. 16-17)

**Costoanachis sparsa (Reeve, 1859) (figs.
20 - 21 )

**Decipifus kristenseni Jong & Coomans,
1988 (fig. 22)

Decipifus sixaolus Olsson & McGinty, 1958
(figs 23-25)

Mazatlania cosentini (Philippi, 1836)

Mitrella dichroa (Sowerby 1,1844)

Mitrella ocellata (Gmelin, 1791)

Parvanachis obesa (C.B. Adams, 1845)(figs.
26-27)

** Parvanachis sp. aff. nisitella (Duclos, 1840)
(figs. 28-29)

Rhombinella laevigata (Linnaeus, 1758)
Steironepion maculatum (C.B. Adams, 1850)
(fig.s 30-31)

**Steironepion minus (C.B. Adams, 1845)
(fig. 32)

Steironepion moniliferum (Sowerby 1,1844)
Bailyaparva (C.B. Adams, 1850)

Engina turbinella (Kiener, 1835)

Polygona brevicaudata (Reeve, 1847)
Leucozonia nassa (Gmelin, 1791)

Mitra barbadensis (Gmelin, 1791)

Mitra nodulosa (Gmelin, 1791)

Vexillum gemmatum (Sowerby II,.1874)
Vexillum puella (Reeve, 1845)

Jaspidella blainesi (Ford, 1898)

Oliva reticularis Lamarck, 1810

Olivella marmosa (Olsson & McGinty, 1958)

Vasum muricatum (Born, 1778)

Persicula catenata (Montagu, 1803)

Persicula weberi Olsson & McGinty, 1958
Plesiocysticus larva (Bavay, 1922)

Prunum guttatum (Dillwyn, 1817)

Prunum leonardhilli Petuch, 1990
Volvarina avena (Kiener, 1834)

**Volvarina heterozona (Jousseaume, 1857)
(figs. 33-34)

**Volvarina rubella (C.B. Adams, 1845)(figs.
35-36)

* Volvarina species (figs. 37-38)

Hastula hastata (Gmelin, 1791)

Hastula salleana (Deshayes, 1859)

** Conus archetypus Crosse, 1865

Conus cardinalis Hwass, 1792

Conus jaspideus Gmelin, 1791

Conus mus Hwass, 1792

*Strictispira solida (C.B. Adams, 1850) (figs.

41-42)

Page 12

Vol. 38, No. 2

Crassispira elatior (C. B. Adams, 1845)

Cymakra dubia (Olsson & McGinty, 1958)

Nannodiella vespuciana (d’Orbigny, 1842)

Pilsbryspira leucocyma Dali, 1883
Cryoturris quadrilineata (C.B. Adams, 1850)

**Glyphoturris rugirima (Dali, 1889) (figs. 39-40)
Pyrgocythara albovittata (C.B. Adams, 1945)

Pyrgocytharaplicosa (C.B. Adams, 1850)

Heliacus bisulcatus (d’Orbigny, 1842)

Heliacus cylindricus (Gmelin, 1791)

Heliacusperrieri (Rochebrunne, 1881)

**Psilaxis krebsii (Morch, 1875) (figs. 43-44)

Boonea jadisi (Olsson & McGinty, 1958)

Chrysallida gemmulosa (C.B. Adams, 1850)

Odostomia ? species

Triplychus niveus (Morch, 1875)

**Turbonilla levis (C.B. Adams, 1850) (fig. 45)

Turbonillapupoides (d’Orbigny, 1842)

**Turbonilla (Strioturbonilla) sp. B of Lee (2009)(fig. 46)
Haminoea glabra (A. Adams, 1850
Atys sandersoni Dali, 1881
Pedipes mirabilis (Muhlfeld, 1816)

Williamia krebsii (Morch, 1877)

BIVALVES

**Botula fusca (Gmelin, 1791) (fig. 54)

**Lithophaga bisulcata (d’Orbigny, 1853) (fig. 55)

Barbatia cancellaria (Lamarck, 1819)

Cucullearca Candida (Helbling, 1779)

Scapharca chemnitzii (Philippi, 1851)

Lima caribaea (d’Orbigny, 1853)

Bractechlamys antillarum (Recluz, 1853)

Caribachlamys imbricata (Gmelin, 1791)

**Caribachlamys ornata (Lamarck, 1819) (fig. 56)
Euvolaziczac (Linnaeus, 1758)

*Leptopecten bavayi (Dautzenberg 1900)(fig. 57)

Codakia orbicularis (Linnaeus, 1758)

Divalinga quadrisulcata (d’Orbigny, 1842)

Lucina pensylvanica (Linnaeus, 1758)

Ctena orbiculata (Montagu, 1808)

Phlyctiderma semiasperaum (Philippi, 1836)

Chama florida Lamarck, 1819
Crassinella lunulata (Conrad, 1834)

Laevicardium laevigatum (Linnaeus, 1758)

Papyridea soleniformis (Bruguiere, 1789)

Trachycardium muricatum (Linnaeus, 1758)

Trigoniocardia media (Linnaeus, 1758)

**Cyclinella tenuis (Recluz, 1852) (fig. 61)

**Macoma pseudomera Dali & Simpson, 1901 (figs. 58-59)

Tellinella listen Roding, 1798

Donax striatus Linnaeus, 1767

Semele proficua Pulteney, 1799

*Semele purpurascens (Gmelin, 1791)(fig.60)

Petricola lapicida (Gmelin, 1791)

Juliacorbula aequivalvis (Philippi, 1836)

**Gastrochaena ovata Sowerby 1,1834 (fig. 62)
**Spengleria rostrata (Spengler, 1783) (fig. 63)

Thracia species

FRESHWATER
Thiara species

A New Shell Display

Bobbi Cordy

BREVARD j
MUSEUM ;;

of History &
Natural Science

The new “Johnson/Cordy Hall of Mollusks” will open at
the Brevard Museum of Natural History, 2201 Michigan Avenue,
Cocoa, Florida, within the next 6-9 months. Johnnie Johnson
(a former member of the Astronaut Trail Shell Club and now
deceased), retired US Navy, has most of his collection located at the
museum. The collection is housed in shell cabinets, disorganized,
and very dimly lit. The shells are numbered and binders on top
of each cabinet list the corresponding names for the shells. These
binders are seldom used. Most visitors just casually go through the
drawers.

In October 2009, Jim’s 97 year old Mom passed away
and left us a goodly sum of money and we had to decide just what
we wanted to do with it. Jim’s first response was, “I want a shell
museum.” My mouth was agape! I figured he would say new
house, new car, etc. Well we sat down with paper and pencil
and looked at the associated costs: property, a building (owned
or rented), maintenance, utilities, security, salary for curator and
assistant, insurance, etc. etc. etc. The sum was not trivial.

We had recently been invited by the Administrator at the
Brevard Museum to view Johnnie Johnson’s collection. We were
quite disappointed at the way this collection looked and found
it was mostly a funding (or lack thereof) issue. So the “wheels

June 2010

American Conchologist

Page 13

The front entrance to the Brevard Museum of His¬
tory and Natural Science. Hopefully within this next
year the sell display will be completely redone and up¬
graded into "The Johnson/Cordy Hall of Mollusks."

started turning.” We offered to completely remodel the room,
add some really nice glass cases, add many of our own shells, and
name it “The Johnson/Cordy Hall of Mollusks”.

The name had a double meaning for us as Jim’s mom
enjoyed shells and traveled with us to Mexico several times when
we lived in California. Her maiden name was Johnson, so we
know this will be a great memorial to her.

There happens to be a large case in the center of the room
full of sand. I am going to add sea grass and rocks and display my
models of living mollusks to make it look like “under the sea.”

Another dream we have always had is to share some of
the great shell show exhibits with more of the public than is able to
view them with a short weekend presentation. We hope to do that
by rotating exhibits by some of the winners from our Space Coast
Seashell Festival. We already have several shellers who agree this
is a good idea and are willing to help in any way. For Jim and I this
is also a way of regaining some space in our shell room at home.

Jim and I plan to give monthly shell talks or craft
demonstrations and we will try to generate more publicity for the
museum. Hopefully, this will benefit both the museum and our
shell club. The “Hall of Mollusks” will be open in time to be
offered as one of the field trips for the 2011 COA convention.

James and Bobbi Cordy
Merritt Island, Florida

Shelling Trips to the Bahamas

Space Coast Seashell Festival,
Melbourne Florida
January 15-16, 2011

Space Coast Treasures

2011 COA Convention
Radisson Resort at the Port
Port Canaveral, Florida
July 13-17, 2011

Page 14

Vol. 38, No. 2

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American Conchologist

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Our 31 st Year

June 2010

American Conchologist

Page 17

PHEASANT SNAILS ( PHASIANELLA )

Robert Robertson

Plate A. Living Phasianella australis : dorsal, ventral, and
right lateral views. Top and middle images from Quoy
& Gaimard (1833), bottom image from Kiener (1847).

I have not published much on Phasianella before now because I
thought my results too inconclusive. The purpose of this paper is
to summarize what I learned, particularly as regards nomenclature,
and to suggest future avenues of research.

Pheasant snails (Phasianellidae) have been placed in three
subfamilies (Phasianellinae, Tricoliinae, and Gabrieloninae), based
on the genera Phasianella Lamarck, 1804, Tricolia Risso, 1826,
and Gabrielona Iredale, 1917. Most of their shells and external
body surfaces are extremely variable as to colors and patterns.
They are spotted, striped or lined spirally or diagonally, often with
subsutural “flames” Only on small or young Phasianella are there
“spiral capillary lines.” These are features of the color pattern and
not sculptural. Phasianella shells do not fluoresce in short- and

Plate B. P. australis : extremes in observed adult shell shapes,
mm scale.

mixed-wave length ultraviolet; Tricolia does so from both, with red
coloration fluorescing red (personal observations). Phasianella
attains the largest sizes, and Gabrielona species are smaller
than most Tricolia species. Length - width variation is greatest
in Tricolia. Gabrielona is invariably low-spired. Shell whorls
are mostly smoothly rounded, but in two probably independently
evolved Tricolia species, spiral cording and whorl shouldering are
variably developed. Mature males are probably always smaller
than females, but pronounced sexual shell dimorphism has
evolved at least once, possibly twice, in Indo-West Pacific Tricolia.
Phasianella differs from Tricolia in lacking an umbilical chink.
Unlike their supposed relatives Turbo and Trochus, phasianellid
shells all lack mother-of-pearl (nacre) internally. Only Gabrielona
has a faint, incised spiral line (“palatal sulcus”) in the middle or
high in the aperture, and two or three apertural denticles. Like
Turbo , though, phasianellids have calcareous opercula; Trochus
have corneous opercula. The opercula are few-whorled: those of
both Phasianella and Tricolia have convex and mostly smooth

Page 18

Vol. 38, No. 2

Plate C. Adult shells of P. ventricosa (figs. 1-11) and P. austra¬
lis (figs. 12-20). All temperate southern Australia. All to same scale.

outer surfaces (pi. E); those of Gabrielona are spirally ribbed
externally and are thickest marginally. Cladograms in a recent
molecular study (Williams et al., 2008) show that Phasianella,
Tricolia, and Gabrielona cluster near the Colloniidae (a surprise)
and separate from all the remaining Trochoidea (Turbinidae and
Trochidae, etc.). The superfamily Phasianelloidea was newly so-
ranked.

Long ago, I published on the systematics of Tricolia in
the tropical western Atlantic and the tropical and temperate Indo-
West Pacific, on Gabrielona in the Indo-West Pacific, and on
Eugabrielona Hickman & McLean, 1990 fossil and living in the
West Indies. The last differs from Gabrielona primarily by radular
characters; the shells are closely similar but are spirally sulcate.
Radula morphology varies little in Phasianella, but is diverse
particularly in Indo-West Pacific Tricolia, calling in question the
generic distinctness of Eugabrielona. T. “variabilis (Pease, 1861)”
has sexually dimorphic radulae that also vary geographically in
correlation with shell size. This and some other species of Tricolia
undergo striking radular ontogeny. Waren (1990) wisely opposed
recognizing genera based solely on radular characters. Middle

American Tricolia species belong in
Eulithidium Pilsbry, 1898, which deserves
no higher rank than subgenus if it is to
be coordinate with taxa in the Indo-West
Pacific. Adults are distinct mainly in
having four pairs of radular lateral teeth;
elsewhere, adult Tricolia have either five
or three pairs. I based some western
Atlantic subspecies mainly on shell color
patterns. They greatly need restudy, using
other shell and animal characters.

With the possible exception of Tricolia
indica Winckworth, 1940, which lives
in an anomalous habitat and has a tiny
aberrant radula showing some juvenile
traits (Robertson, 1985), all phasianellids
are probably unselective herbivores
or detritivores restricted to shallow
waters. Their shell pigments are largely
retained or derived from algal pigments.
Phasianella australis reproduction was
studied by Murray (1967). Spermatozoa
and 0.14mm eggs were shed freely in an
aquarium. The eggs, fertilized in small
dishes, became brilliant-green, free-
swimming trochophore larvae. The length
of the planktonic stage remains unknown.

Although it occurred in the Middle
Miocene of eastern Europe (Romania),
true Phasianella is now restricted to the
tropical Indo-West Pacific and temperate
southern Australia. It is present at the
northern ends of the Red Sea and Persian
Gulf, south to Mozambique, east to
southeastern Honshu (Chiba Prefecture),
Japan, south to northern and southern
Australia (not New Zealand), and east to
southern Polynesia (at least to Samoa); it
is absent from Hawaii.

Far the largest two species of Phasianella occur in non-
tropical southern Australia (pi. C): P. australis (Gmelin, 1791),
the type species, and P. ventricosa Swainson, 1822. The former
attains a length of about 10cm, and the latter is smaller and has
a lower spire. Both have been named excessively. A synonymy
of P. australis was given in Robertson (1958: 255-256) and is
repeated here in table 1 with the addition of P. marchei Mabille,
1888 (wrongly “Philippines”). A list of synonyms of P. ventricosa
is presented in Table 2. These two have brittle shells, unlike the
still smaller species, and repaired breaks change shell shapes (pi.
B) and disrupt color patterns (pi. C, fig. 2). P. australis and P.
ventricosa live from southern Western Australia east to Victoria
and Tasmania. Subfossils from New South Wales are smaller and
appear intermediate.

P. angasi Crosse, 1864, type locality: Port Elliot, South
Australia, co-occurs with P. australis and P. ventricosa, and is
much smaller than either of these (pi. D, figs. 3-6, pi. F). It closely
resembles some forms of P. “solida (Born, 1778)” but has less
inflated spire whorls. Curiously, I have yet to see a live-collected
specimen, but it has been recorded to a depth of 22 fathoms.

June 2010

American Conchologist

Page 19

P. solida is here called a
“complex” because, as will be shown
later, it comprises perhaps as many as 20
or 30 closely similar subspecies or species
occurring singly at each of its localities
throughout most of the tropical Indo-West
Pacific (pi. D, figs. 7-42). Both sexes
show extreme geographic variation in
maximum attained shell size throughout
the area (pi. I). This is like Tricolia
variabilis in the broad sense (Robertson,
1985: pi. 86), another complex; but the
largest and smallest shells in each of
these complexes occur in different places,
and there is no pronounced sexual shell
dimorphism in Phasianella as there is in
the Tricolia. The largest P. “solida ” shells
occur at Mozambique and the smallest
adult sizes are attained at Samoa (pi. H).
The difference in shell volume is 20- to
30-fold.

Shell and operculum colors, shell
shape, shell microsculpture, and a radular
character all show geographic variation
in the P. solida complex. Examples: in
Japan and the Bonins, shells tend to be
more red or pink than elsewhere, often
with orange around the aperture. In
Queensland and nearby New Caledonia,
operculum exteriors are usually tinged
with yellow; elsewhere, they are always
white. Spire height varies, as does also
the degree to which whorls are swollen.
Shells are spirally corded in the entire
Indian Ocean east to northern Australia
and New Caledonia. The cords are finest
and faintest in Sri Lanka and Western
Australia; elsewhere in the western Pacific
cords are rare or absent. Then in the
southwestern Indian Ocean the unworn
tips of the inner marginal radular teeth
are asymmetrically truncated; elsewhere,
they are asymmetrically pointed. Using
this mosaic of characters, the geographic
provenance of shells without locality data
can sometimes be ascertained.

These cases of geographic
variation in the P. solida complex are
probably indicative of “archipelagic
differentiation.” This was first reported
in the eastern Indian Ocean and western-
and mid-Pacific Ocean turbinid Astralium
“rhodostomum (Lamarck, 1822)” by
Meyer et al. (2005). What had been
considered a somewhat variable,
widespread species was shown by
molecular genetics, external body color
patterns, and cladistics to be developing
localized populations, subspecies, or even

Plate D. Juvenile P. australis (figs. 1-2) and adult P. angasi (figs. 3-6);
all temperate southern Australia. P. solida complex (figs. 7-42): adults
from numerous tropical Indo-West Pacific localities. All to same scale.

Plate E. Calcareous opercula (yellow concave interiors with an organic peri-
ostracum-like covering on the left and white convex exteriors on the right)
of P. ventricosa (figs. 1-2), P. solida (figs. 3-4), and P. australis (figs. 5-6).

Page 20

Vol. 38, No. 2

Plate F. P. angasi. Holotype from South Australia. Length:
22.5mm.

Plate G. P. solida. Original illustrations of “Helix” solida
Born, 1778. From Born (1780, pi. 13, figs. 18-19). Locality
unknown. Length about 20-25mm.

species - numerous isolated endemic clades, some separated by as
little as 180km.

Names considered here to belong in the P. solida complex
in chronological order (with localities) are given in Table 3.
Many of these names and perhaps others will probably be needed
ultimately for each localized form, subspecies, or species.

Phasianella and Tricolia nomenclature have frequently
been intertwined. For example, Poppe (2008: 264, pi. 77)
illustrated in color six “ Tricolia ” shells and two living animals
from the Philippines. All but one show spiral capillary lines and
hence belong in Phasianella. His Tricolia fordiana (Pilsbry, 1888)
(fig. 2, not 3) is correctly identified and is a first record in the
Philippines. “I ” modesta belongs in the P. solida complex. He

Plate H. Largest observed P. solida shells are from Mozam¬
bique (lower right) and the smallest from Samoa, mm scale.

stated that “the Pacific Tricolia are in need of revision,” evidently
being unaware of Robertson (1985). The T. variabilis complex
also occurs in the Philippines.

The genus Phasianella has been a dumping ground for
quite different fossil and some living species. Research already
begun on Tricolia and trochoideans could and should be extended
to Phasianella. 1. scanning electron microscope (SEM) studies
of protoconchs and adult shell microsculptures, 2. life histories:
eggs, larval development, settlement and metamorphosis, 3. sperm
ultrastructure (transmission electron microscopy), 4. adult animals
(living and preserved): external morphology (cirri, etc.) [pi. A],
comparative internal microanatomy and functional morphology,
5. radulae: ontogeny and functional morphology studied and
illustrated using various techniques, 6. adult ecology, foods and
feeding, 7. effects of different foods on shell colors and sculptures,
and 8. molecular and cladistic studies of species and populations.

Ideally, a molecular geneticist cum microanatomist
should be supported with millions of dollars to stay in one idyllic
place after another throughout the Indian Ocean and South Seas to
seek The Truth about Phasianella and Tricolia.

June 2010

American Conchologist

Page 21

rticr r

. ■>

-—

I — ■ •Sf-

r 4

; , ,-y .

' i*

. V ■*¥-

A t i A

«tw

[uii«hit

ft hiw

Plate I. Map of Indo-West Pacific showing geographic variation in maximum observed shell sizes in the P. solida complex (in¬
cluding P. angasi in South Australia). They are all outlined at the same scale and are definitely adults (thousands of shells were
studied).

REFERENCES (SELECTED)

Cuvier, G. [L.C.F.D.] 1808. Memoire sur la ... Phasianelle de M.
Lamarck. Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. [Paris], 11: 121,130-135, pi. 11, figs. 9-13.
Deshayes, G.P. 1843. Phasianelle. In: Lamarck, Hist. Nat. Anim. S. Vert..
Paris, ed. 2, 9: 239-247.

Hadfield, M.G. et al. 1997. Ciliary currents of non-feeding veligers in
putative basal clades of gastropods. Invert. Biol. , 116: 313-321.
Hickman, C.S. 1977. Integration of electron scan and light imagery in
study of molluscan radulae. Veliger, 20: 1-8, figs. 1-9.

Hickman, C.S. 1992. Reproduction and development of trochacean
gastropods. Veliger , 35: 245-272.

Hickman, C.S. 1998. Superfamily Trochoidea. In Beesley, PL. et al.
(eds.), “Mollusca: The Southern Synthesis. Fauna of Australia.” CSIRO,
Melbourne, 5(B): 671-692.

Hickman, C.S. & J.H. McLean. 1990. Systematic revision and
suprageneric classification of trochacean gastropods. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los
Angeles Co. Sci. Ser., 35: vi + 169 pp.

Kiener, L.-C. 1847. Genre Phasianelle. In Species ... coquilles vivantes.
Paris, 10: 11 pp., 5 pis. Text date unknown.

Meyer, C.P. et al 2005. Fine scale endemism on coral reefs: archipelagic
differentiation in turbinid gastropods. Evolution, 59: 113-125.
Moolenbeek, R.G. & H. Dekker. 1993. The “pheasant shells” of Oman.
Venus, 52: 141-148.

Morris, T.E. & C.S. Hickman. 1981. A method for artificially protruding
gastropod radulae and a new model of radula function. Veliger, 24: 85-90,
figs. 2-9.

Murray, F.V. 1967. Reproduction in the pheasant shell, Phasianella
australis.... Victorian Naturalist, 84: 39-40.

Philippi, R.A. 1853. Phasianella Lamk. In Martini & Chemnitz, Syst.

Conch-Cab., Nurnberg, (2)2(5): 1-32, 5 pis.

Pilsbry, H.A. 1888-1889. Subfamily Phasianellinae. In : Man. Conchol,
Philadelphia, 1(10)38, pis. 37-39, (1)10(39), 162-184, pis. 40, 45;
(1)10(40): 270-290, 311-313, 315, 320-322, pis. 39a, 60, 61, 64.

Poppe, G.T. 2008. “Philippine marine mollusks.” Vol. I (Gastropoda -
Part I). ConchBooks, Hackenheim, Germany.

Reeve, L.A. 1862. Monograph of... Phasianella. Conch. Icon. London,
13: 10 pp., 6 pis.

Risbec, J. 1940 [“1939”]. Recherches anatomiques sur les prosobranches
de Nouvelle Caledonie [2; 1], Ann. Sci. Nat., Zool., (11)2: 235-298
(Phasianella pp. 282-286, 291).

Robertson, R. 1958. The family Phasianellidae in the western Atlantic.
Johnsonia, 3: 245-283.

Robertson, R. 1985. Archaeogastropod biology and the systematics
of the genus Tricolia (Trochacea: Tricoliidae) in the Indo-West-Pacific.
Monogr. Mar. Moll, 3: 1-103.

Robertson, R. 1997. Japanese “Phasianellidae.” Chiribotan, 27: 33-35.
Robertson, R. Submitted. A true Phasianella from the Middle Miocene
... of Romania. Arch. Molluskenkunde.

Sowerby, G.B. II. [1884]. Phasianella, Lamarck. In: Thes. Conchyl.
London, 5(41, 42): 149-152, pis. 475-476.

Williams, S.T. et al. 2008. Molecular systematics of Vetigastropoda:
Trochidae, Turbinidae and Trochoidea redefined. Zool. Scripta, 37: 483-
506.

Robert Robertson
Emeritus Curator of Malacology
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
hhandrrconch@aol. com

Page 22

Vol. 38, No. 2

Table 1. Synonyms of Phasianella australis (Gmelin,
1791). From Western Australia east along the southern
coast to Victoria and Tasmania. Gmelin’s type locality of
New Zealand rivers is in error.

1. Helix phasianus Roding, 1798

2. P. variegata de Roissy, 1810

3. Bulimus phasianus Perry, 1810

4. Trochus phasianella ? Brookes, 1815

5. P. varia Lamarck, 1816

6. P. bulimoides Lamarck, 1822

7. P picta de Blainville, 1825

8. P. tritonis Anton, 1838 [“1839”]

9. P. lehmanni Menke, 1843

10. P. preissii Menke, 1843

11. P. venustaRQQ\Q , 1848

12. P. decorata Chenu, 1859

13. P. pulchella Tenison-Woods, 1878 (not Recluz, 1843)

14. P. delicatula Tenison-Woods, 1878

15. P. australis Gmelin var. subsanguinea Pilsbry, 1888

16. P. marchei Mabille, 1888 (wrongly Philippines)

Table 2. Synonyms of Phasianella ventricosa Swainson,
1822. All southern Australia.

1. P. inflata Swainson, 1822

2. Turbo (Phasianella) perdix Wood, 1828

3. P. articulata Anton, 1838 [“1839”] (type wrongly
labeled “Oceania”)

4. P. brevis Menke, 1843 (not d’Orbigny, 1842)

5. P. turgida Philippi, 1853

6. P. delessertii Chenu, 1859

7. P. sanguinea Reeve, 1862

8. P. zebra Reeve, 1862

9. P. venosa Reeve, 1862

10. P. reticulata Reeve, 1862

11. P. peroni Mabille, 1888

Table 3. Names for forms, subspecies or species in the
Phasianella solida complex from numerous tropical Indo-
West Pacific localities.

1. Helix solida Born, 1778 (locality?) [PL G]

2. P. variegata Lamarck, 1822 (not de Roissy, 1805 [not
in Sherborn]) (Australia [tropical])

3. P. rubens Lamarck, 1822 (Australia [tropical])

4. Tricolia brongniartii [“brongnartii”] Audouin, 1826
(Egypt)

5. Turbo varius Wood, 1828 (not P. varia Lamarck, 1816)
(Sri Lanka?)

6. Turbo (Phasianella) lineolatus Wood, 1828 (Mauritius)

7. P. viridis Anton, 1838 [“1839”] (locality?)

8. P. unifascialis Kiener, 1847 (Australia [tropical])

9. P. flammulata Philippi, 1848 (Pacific Ocean or Red
Sea?)

10. P. splendida Philippi, 1849 (Red Sea)

11. P. grata Philippi, 1853 (Madagascar)

12. P. aethiopica Philippi, 1853 (East Africa, Zanzibar,
etc.)

13. Eutropia modesta Gould, 1861 (Ryukyu Is.)

14. P. nivosa Reeve, 1862 (Sri Lanka and Philippines)

15. P. fulgurata Rgg\g , 1862 (Australia [tropical])

16. P. jaspidea Reeve, 1862 (Zanzibar)

1 7. P. histrio Reeve, 1862 (Philippines)

18. P. lentiginosa Reeve, 1862 (W. Australia)

19. P. graeffei Dunker, 1871 (Samoa Is.)

20. P. wisemanni Baird, 1873 (Vanuatu)

21. P. (Orthomesus) modesta (Gould) var. gouldii Pilsbry,
1895 (Japan)

22. P. montebelloensis Preston, 1914 (N.W. Australia)

23. P. zigzag Odhner, 1919 (Madagascar)

24. P. caloundra \YQda\G , 1927 (Queensland, Australia)

June Huie, a member of the North Texas Conchological Society for 35
years, and a charter member, died March 25, 2010 after a short illness.
She was 86 and serving as newsletter editor and program chairman for
the club. June began collecting shells in the 1940’s. She knew each
shell she had by scientific name and shared her knowledge with others
by always holding a club office, giving programs, and helping us with
species identification. June was a long time member of the Conchologists
of America and loved going to conventions, jamborees, and shelling
trips. She will be missed as a friend and fellow shell collector.

Ardeth Hardin

June 2010

American Conchologist

Page 23

What goes around comes around; Jacksonville Shell Club to fund

annual COA Academic Grant

Harry G. Lee

On June 22, 1959, the first meeting of what was to become the
Jacksonville Shell Club was held in the home of Mr. and Mrs.
Larry Hedgecoth. The event resulted from an article by staff
writer Nancy Campbell appearing in the Florida Times Union on
April 26 of that year. Nancy reported on the shelling exploits of
Jacksonville resident Gertrude Moller while she and her family
lived on Eleuthera, in the Bahamas. As a result of the publicity,
nine individuals contacted Gertrude inquiring about shells. One
of the callers was Harriet Hedgecoth, who volunteered to host a
get-together of all the interested parties, and who also provided
refreshments and a slide show on that sentinel occasion. The
rest is history, repeated on fourth Thursdays and extending
beyond a golden anniversary last year. The meetings were held
in member’s homes initially but were soon moved to various
locations in the Jacksonville area as membership grew from
the original 10 to 20. In January 1960, the group officially
became the Jacksonville Shell Club with 20 Charter Members,
and Larry Hedgecoth was elected its first President. In October
1959, volume 1 no. 1 of the club’s official organ, the Shell-O-
Gram , came off the (mimeographic) press, and this journal has
continued, moving from a monthly to a bimonthly publication
in 1983 to the present day essentially without interruption.

The club presented its first shell show at the Lion’s Club
building at 20th and Main Street in downtown Jacksonville
in July, 1962. With the effort of the membership and
Dr. William Clench, Curator of Mollusks at the Museum
of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, the show
was deemed a success. The Jacksonville Shell Club was
incorporated under Florida statute in 1964 and in May 2009 was
recognized as tax-exempt educational organization under the
provisions of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

From its inception the club has held education as principal in
its mission. Aside from the nearly annual shell shows, the 44th
being held on May 28-30, 2010, members have participated in
various other public exhibitions, spoken to civic organizations
and schools, operated booths at various festivals and local
events, sponsored field trips, participated in curatorial and

field work with scientists, and donated material and volunteer
services with scientific and educational institutions including the
Florida Museum of Natural History and the Bailey-Matthews
Shell Museum. In the 1980’s the club began to provide grant
support for students showing an aptitude for and an interest
in malacology. Past scholarship winners include Dr. Paula
Mikkelsen of the Paleontological Research Institution (then
at Florida Institute of Technology) and, while at Jacksonville
University, Debi Ingrao, recently retired from Mote Marine
Lab, Sarasota, Florida. Most years, however, we were unable to
grant an award because the coffers just weren’t ample enough.

An abiding goal for the club was the creation of a thorough
inventory of the marine mollusks of the Jacksonville region
based on our own primary research. This special collaboration
involving several dozen club members and a few others began
in 1975 and culminated last year with the publication of Marine
shells of northeast Florida (Lee, 2009a, b). To forward this
campaign, we received an Academic Grant from the COA in 1990.
In large part due to the proceeds from the sale of this book, the
Jacksonville Shell Club is now in a financial position to embellish
and formalize its commitment to the support of education and
research in malacology. Considering COA’s past assistance to
our club and the current arrangement for joint philanthropy as
expressed by Chairman Donald Dan, the club has decided to
endow a COA annual Academic Grant ($10,000). This stipend
is expected to be a perennial award in support of graduate or
postgraduate studies in malacology, particularly work focusing on
taxonomy and organismic studies of the fauna of our region. Our
only charter member, Gertrude Moller, was among those casting
votes in the unanimous support of this initiative. She can tell you
better than anyone that we’ve come a long way in this half century.

Lee, H.G. 2009a. Marine shells of northeast
Florida. Jacksonville Shell Club, Jacksonville, FL.
Pp. (l)-204 incl. numerous text figs. + 19 color pis.
Lee,H.G. 2009b. Marine shells of northeast Florida: a chronicle
of the campaign. American Conchologist 37(3): 18-20 Sept.

Page 24

Vol. 38, No. 2

2010 SHELL SHOWS & RELATED EVENTS (August - December)

Following information is subject to change. Please verify with individual organization

Aug. 20-22
2010

Aug. 27-31
2010

Sept. 18-19
2010

Sept. 24-26
2010

Sept. 25-26
2010

Oct. 9-10
2010

JERSEY CAPE SHELL SHOW, Stone
Harbor, New Jersey
The Wetlands Institute, Stone Harbor
Karen Lelli e-mail: kjlelli@comcast.net
(856) 691-5831

CONCHOLOGISTS OF AMERICA
ANNUAL CONVENTION, Boston, MA
The Boston Park Plaza Hotel, 50 Park Plaza
& Arlington Street

DonRobak (617) 889-1841 E-mail:

shellsnail@comcast.net

Warren Graff (978) 749-3351 E-mail:

wgraff@vicr. com

Web site: www.conchologistsofamerica.org

31st INTERNATIONAL SHELLS &
FOSSIL BOURSE, Ottmarsheim, France
Salle Polyvalente, Rue de la Priscine
Michel Rioual, 2 Rue des Vergers
68490 Ottmarsheim, France (3) 89-26-16-43

NORTH CAROLINA SHELL SHOW,

Wilmington, NC

Cape Fear Museum of History & Science
814 market Street

Ann Buddenhagen, 618 Crabbery Fane
Raleigh, NC 27609 (919)787-7103
E-mail: abuddenhagen@nc.rr.com

ANNUAL GERMAN SHELL FAIR,

Oehringen, Germany

KULTURA Hall, Herrenwiesenstr. 12

Kurt Kreipl, Hoehenweg

D-74613 Oehringen-Cappel, Germany

E-mail: meeresmuseum@t-online.de

Tel. (7941) 62-826

PHILADELPHIA SHELL SHOW,

Philadelphia, PA

Academy of Natural Sciences, Parkway &
19 th St.

Paul Callomon, Academy of Natural
Sciences

Parkway & 19th St., Philadelphia, PA 19103

(215)299-1159

E-mail: callomon@ansp.org

Date to be SEA SHELL SEARCHERS SHELL
confirmed SHOW, Lake Jackson, TX

Brazosport Museum of Natural Science
400 College Blvd., Clute, Texas 77531
Patty Humbird, Tel. (979) 265-1320
Wanda Coker, Tel. (979) 297-0852
Email: shellclub@earthlink.net

Oct 30 BRITISH SHELL COLLECTOR’S CLUB

20 1 0 CONVENTION, Essex, England

They don Boys Community Centre, They don

Boys, Epping, Essex

Tom Walker, 38 Redlands Road

Reading, Berkshire RG1 5HD, England 44

(118)987-4294

E-mail: tom@tmwalker.co.uk

Oct 30 SYDNEY SHELL SHOW, Sydney,

2010 Australia

Show contact:

Steve Dean, 166 Narabeen Pk Pde
Mona Vale, NSW 2103 61 (2) 9979-9536
E-mail: steve@easy.com.au

Nov 13-14 XV PRAGUE INTERNATIONAL
2010 SHELL SHOW, Prague, Czech Rep.

KULTURNIDUM LADVI Buresova 1661,
Prague 8

Jaroslav Derka, Holeckova 51/370
15000 Praha 5, Czech Republic
42 (2) 5731-6246

Email: j derka@volny. cz http ://cksl.
webpark.cz http://shells.webz.cz

DONALD DAN, COA Awards Chairman

6704 Overlook Drive

Ft. Myers, FL 33919 U.S.A.

Tel. Voice & Fax (941) 481-6704

E-mail: donaldan@aol.com sh-date2.2oio April 13,2010

June 2010

American Conchologist

Page 25

The World’s Smallest (and Probably Ugliest) Shell

Collector

Tom Eichhorst

Dorsal view of the 7mm green lacewing larva found by David
Kirsh in Mayo River State Park. In this view you can barely
see the insect for the shells. All of which appeared empty.

In April 2010, COA member David Kirsh collected a
small insect larva that had a number of even smaller land snails
attached to its body. The 7mm larva was found under dead
leaves and ground debris near a stream in Mayo River State Park,
Mayodan, Rockingham County, North Carolina. The attached snail
shells were approximately 3mm or smaller. This was certainly
something David had not previously seen and he was quick to get
photographic evidence of this 7mm shell collector.

The larva was subsequently identified by Dr. Raymond
J. Pupedis of the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale
University, New Haven, Connecticut, as a green lacewing larva
- family Chrysopidae (order Neuroptera). This is a large insect
family with up to 2,000 species in 85 or more genera (a number
that varies with author, as does the assignment of genera). They
are especially prevalent in Europe and North America. Most
specimens encountered in the temperate region are relatively
small with a wing span of about 10-20mm, but tropical green
lacewings can have a wing span of 65mm. In the larval form they
are voracious predators and are sold commercially in the US for
aphid (and other small garden pests) control. A quick check online
showed a price of $15 for 1,000 green lacewing eggs.

So what was it doing with land snails attached to its back?
Apparently the family Chrysopidae is known for the larval stage
attaching small items, such as pieces of leaves and ground debris,
lichens, and insect parts to their body. This habit has earned it the
nickname, “junkyard bug.” Whether this is done for camouflage,
protection, or some other reason is unknown.

David’s encounter was not the first recorded instance
of a snail-collecting green lacewing. In the first issue of the
Appalachian Highlands Science Journal is a article describing
a similar finding in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park,

Ventral view of the green lacewing larva. In this view you can
see the business-like jaws that make this insect such an effec¬
tive predator. Both images by David Kirsh.

North Carolina. While studying land snail diversity, Dan Dourson
found green lacewing larva with six different land snail species
attached, including: Punctum vitreum H.B. Baker, 1930 (a new
record for the area); P. minutissimum (Lea, 1841); P. blandianum
Pilsbry, 1900; Gastropocta pentadon (Say, 1821), G. contracta
(Say, 1822), and Carychium clappi Hubricht, 1959. The G.
pentadon was still alive, maybe answering a question about snail
predation by the green lacewing larva.

Now back to the specimen found and photographed by
David Kirsh. He showed his images to our own Dr. Harry G.
Lee, who promptly identified the shells as juvenile Glyphyalinia
wheatleyi (Bland, 1883). Much of this story can be found on line
at the Jacksonville Web Site at: http://www.jaxshells.org/mare20.
htm. There are also a number of references provided by Dr.
Harry Lee about predation of various mollusk species by insects
(including one that lists a predatory butterfly caterpillar!).

To have an interest in conchology is to appreciate the
shiny perfection of a golden cowrie ( Cypraea aurantium Gmelin,
1791), or even the ever-changing taxonomy that lists the same spe¬
cies as Lyncina aurantium (Gmelin, 1791). Similarly, the spiny
perfection of a Venus comb murex ( Murex pecten Lightfoot, 1786)
or the bright colors and intricate sculpture of a specious scallop
(Gloriopallium speciosum (Reeve, 1853)) are indeed wonders to
behold. David Kirsh found the wonder of conchology (as well as
natural history in general) on a small insect under a leaf in North
Carolina.

“It is perhaps a more fortunate destiny to have a taste for collect¬
ing shells than to be born a millionaire. ”

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

Page 26

Vol. 38, No. 2

Jim & Bobbi Cordy Take the COA Award at the Marco Island
Shell Club Shell Show (Plus a Few Others)

Jim and Bobbi
Cordy have collected
shells at least twice a year
on Eleuthera Island for the
past 16 years. With other
members of the Astronaut
Trail Shell Club, they
travel hidden beaches and
seldom visited areas. The
result of this is a truly
superb Caribbean shell
collection seen recently
in their 40-foot exhibit of
“Self Collected Shells of
Eleuthera,” which took the
COA and other awards at
2010 shell shows.

At the Space Coast Seashell Festival they won the R.
Tucker Abbott Award for Best Florida/Caribbean Exhibit. At the
Broward Shell Show they won the DuPont Trophy and the Van
Kunnon Memorial Award for best Caribbean exhibit. At the St.
Petersburg Shell Show they won the Florida Museum of Natural
History Platinum Award and the Dorthy Hansler Award for best
Caribbean exhibit and they took Shell of the Show with a very
large and seemingly perfect chank shell (Turbinella angulata
(Lightfoot, 1876) - see the image at right). At the Marco Island
Shell Show they won the COA Trophy and the Dr. William Reid
Trophy for best Florida/Caribbean exhibit.

It looks like they are on a roll. Contact for the Marco
Island Shell Club is Margaret Cook at 394-7022. The club meets
the 1st Tuesday of the month at 8:00 p.m. (November thru May) at
First Methodist Church, 350 S.Barfield Avenue, Marco Island, FF.

Above: Jim (looking very happy) and Bobbi Cordy with two
of many awards they won in 2010.

Below: The football-sized West Indian chank shell (Turbinella
angulata) that took best of show.

St. Petersburg Shell Club 63rd Annual Shell Show

27-28 Feb 2010

After 74 years of
existence and 63 annual
shell shows, it appears the
folks in St. Petersburg,
Florida, really know how
to put on a shell show (the
club was founded in 1936
and incorporated in 1968).
They had lots of exhibitors
and crowds of interested
spectators at “one of the best
shows ever.” This year’s
show had four judges. Scientific judges were: Dr. Gary Schmelz
and Marcus Coltro. Artistic judges were: Debbie Freeman and
Fynn Gaulin. After careful scrutiny of the numerous displays, they
decided on the following awards:

MAJOR:

CONCHOFOGISTS OF AMERICA AWARD - Martin Tremor, Jr
(The Helmets and the Bonnets of It All)

DUPONT AWARD — Dale Stream (Fossil Shell of the Okeechobean
Sea)

NATIONAF MUSEUM OF NATURAE HISTORY AWARD -
Martin Tremor, Jr. (The Helmets and the Bonnets of It All)
FFORIDA MUSEUM OF NATURAE HISTORY PFATINUM -
James & Bobbi Cordy (Self Collected Eleuthera Island)

MINOR:

FFORIDA/CARIBBEAN DOROTHY HANSSFER AWARD -
James & Bobbi Cordy (Self Collected Eleuthera Island)

SEFMA FAWSON MOST BEAUTIFUF AWARD - Martin
Tremor, Jr. (The Helmets and the Bonnets of It All)

BEST SMAFF SCIENTIFIC - Wayne & Patti Humbird (Dye
Murex)

June 2010

American Conchologist

Page 27

EARL CLARK BEST ARTISTIC AWARD - Cheryl Whitten
(Victorian Pearl)

SHELL OF THE SHOW SELF COLLECTED - James & Bobbi
Cordy ( Turbinella angulata)

SHELL OF THE SHOW COLLECTED ANY MANNER - Dale
Stream ( Cymatium floridana )

Judges Special Awards:

Scientific:

Carolyn Petrikin — World Record Mercenaria mercenaria
Martin Tremor, Jr. - Hawaiian Cassis cornuta

Artistic:

Brandy Llewellyn - Yesteryears
Wendy Marshall - Song of the Sea

Shell show president Martin E. Tremor Jr. wishes to thank all
judges, participants, and exhibitors. Meetings are held on the
second Friday of the month (except in March when it is on the
third Friday) from September to May at the Seminole Recreation
Center located at 9100 113th Street North Seminole, FI 3772. The
meeting starts at 7:00 PM. and the public is invited.

Right: Martin E. Tremor Jr., winner of the COA Award for
“The Helmets and the Bonnets of It All.”

Oregon Society of Con-
chologists Shell Show
23-25 April 2010

The Oregon Society
of Conchologists held
their shell show at the
Oregon Museum of
Science & Industry.
A superb facility
and a perfect venue
for the shell show,
which could hardly
have gone better, lots of great shells on display and lots of people
interested in them. This year’s COA Award went to Valerie K.
Moore from Vancouver, Washington. Her exhibit was titled “What
is a Bivalve,” and proved both educational and artistic.

The Oregon Society of Conchologists, a non-profit
organization, has about 70 members and was founded in 1965.
Monthly meetings are held at various locations in northwestern
Oregon and are open to anyone interested in studying and
collecting seashells. Contacts for the club are: Donna Saffir,
President, dragonzs@comcast.net (503) 297-3009 or Joyce
Matthys, joycematthys@aol.com

Page 28

Vol. 38, No. 2

Sarasota Shell Club Shell Show
12-14 February 2010

The Sarasota
Shell Club was
started to bring
together people
interested in shells
from Sarasota,
Manatee, and
Charlotte
Counties. This
year’s shell show
was the club’s 47
annual show. As
usual there was great participation, lots of really beautiful shells
and friendly folks, and shell displays that were both educational
and nice to look at. This year’s event was held at the Sarasota
Municipal Auditorium, located at 801 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota,
FL. The shell show chairperson was Peggy Williams and the
scientific judges were Dr. Ed Petuch and Robert Lipe.

The COA Award was won by Martin E. Tremer Jr. of St.
Petersburg, Florida. His 14 case, 32 foot display was titled, “A
Display of Trumpets and Tritons of the World.” Martin also took
the DuPont Trophy for his display titled “Helmets & Bonnets.”
Jeanette Tysor won the Mote Gold Award for her display, “Staying
Alive.” The “Shell of the Show” was a perfect specimen of
Chicoreus hilli Petuch, 1990, displayed by Lynn Gaulin. The fossil
“Shell of the Show” was Strombus mayacensis Tucker & Wilson,
1933. There were almost 1,300 paid attendees at this year’s show.

The Sarasota Shell Club meets on the second Thursday of
each month from September through April. The agenda includes a
program of interest to shell collectors and a short business meeting.
Meetings start at 7:00 p.m. and are held at the Mote Marine
Laboratory, 1600 Ken Thompson Parkway, 3rd floor - Buchanan
Room, Sarasota, Florida. Contact is info@sarasotashellclub.com

Right: Because Martin is pictured for his win at the St.
Petersburg Shell Show (and because I only received the single
image), images of the Mote Marine Laboratory will have to
suffice.

Sanibel-Captiva Shell Club Shell Show

4-6 March 2010

The 73rd annual Sanibel-Captiva Shell Club Shell Show
was held at the Sanibel Community Center in Sanibel, Florida.
This is one of the nation’s larger shell shows and exhibits and the
admission fees are used to fund research scholarships. This is the
only shell club to fully fund a student through graduate school into
a PhD program at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg.
Founded in 1963, the club presently has 100 members. Contact for
the Sanibel-Captiva Club is sanibelchiton@aol.com

This year’s show met the high standards of this club,
with superb exhibits and lots of attendees. Winner of the COA

Award was Patricia Linn with her
three case exhibit titled “Shells of
Caladesi and Honeymoon Islands,
FL.” Her purpose was to educate
the public about shelling on the
island beaches in this state park. It
obviously garnered some attention
as judges Dr. Henry Chaney and
Paul Callomon presented Patricia the
COA Award.

June 2010

American Conchologist

Page 29

Broward Shell Club Shell Show
23-24 January 2010

Left: Alan Gettleman with
his richly deserved COA
Award. Maybe only Alan
could design a display of
U.S. freshwater mussels
that would take not only the
COA Award, based on the
judges evaluation, but also
garner the People's Choice
Award. Congratulations
Alan.

The Broward Shell Club, Broward County, Flor¬
ida, was established in 1962 and has pretty much been a mainstay
of US shell clubs ever since. Meetings are held the 2nd Wednes¬
day of every month at the Emma Lou Olson Civic Center, 1801
N.E. 6th Street, Pompano Beach, Florida (call 954-786-4111).

The 45th annual Broward Shell Club Shell Show was
a tremendous success with some truly spectacular exhibits. The
COA Award went to Alan Gettleman for his display titled “Fresh¬
water U.S. Pearly Mussels.” He also won the People’s Choice
Award (as voted by attendees). That ought to quiet the crowd
who think our native mussels are just “brown and boring” shells.
There were any number of worthy exhibits and those that received
awards are listed here. Of special note were two exhibits. One was
by Linda Sunderland, titled “Earthenware Molasses Can.” Linda’s
exhibit won the first ever Fay Mucha Memorial - Best Collect¬
ibles Trophy. As covered in the December 2009 issue, Fay (who
contributed uncounted photos to this publication) passed away in
October 2009. The other exhibit of note was of “Cuban PolymitcT
by Archie Jones. He won the Len Hill Memorial Trophy with his
colorful display, but sadly passed away not a month later (reported
in the March 2010 issue). Below are listed the various awards and
award winners.

Major Trophies

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY AWARD -
Lillian Shin “Historical Review of the South Florida Tree Snail
Liguus fasciatus ”

CONCHOLOGISTS OF AMERICA TROPHY - Alan Gettleman
“Freshwater U.S. Pearly Mussels”

The DuPONT AWARD - James and Bobbi Cordy “Shells of Eleu-
thra. Self Collected”

The “BEST OF THE BEST” Trophy - Gene Everson “Shells of
Masirah Island, Oman”

Other Trophies & Sponsors

LEN HILL MEMORIAL TROPHY - Archie Jones “Cuban Poly-
mita ”

JIM VUNKANNON MEMORIAL BEST FLORIDA / CARIB¬
BEAN TROPHY - James and Bobbi Cordy “Shells of Eleuthra.
Self Collected”

NEIL HEPLER MEMORIAL TROPHY FOR EDUCATIONAL
EXCELLENCE - Lillian Shin “Historical Review of the South
Florida Tree Snail Liguus fasciatus ”

SHELL OF SHOW - Self Collected - Bobbi Cordy “Left Handed
Morum oniscus”

SHELL OF SHOW - Any Manner - Alan Gettleman “Extinct
Mussel”

BEST SEA LIFE EXHIBIT TROPHY - Jonathan Galka - Pana¬
manian Seabeans”

BEST STUDENT EXHIBITOR TROPHY - SCIENTIFIC - Val¬
entino Leidi “Self Collected South Florida Shells”

BEST BEGINNING EXHIBITOR - SCIENTIFIC - Tom Ball
“Buying Shells On Ebay”

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD - SCIENTIFIC - (As voted by the
attendees) Alan Gettleman

Artistic Division

BEST IN SHOW TROPHY - PROFESSIONAL - Luis Miguel
Rodriguez - Painting

BEST IN SHOW TROPHY - SAILOR’S VALENTINE (any man¬
ner) - Brandy Llewellyn “Yesteryears”

FAY MUCHA MEMORIAL - BEST COLLECTIBLES TROPHY
- (any manner) - Linda Sunderland “Earthenware Molasses Can”
BEST BEGINNING EXHIBITOR ARTISTIC - Bob Pace - Cari¬
catures “Animals of the Everglades”

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD - ARTISTIC DIVISION - (As
voted by the attendance) Heather Strawbridge

Page 30

Vol. 38, No. 2

Last Call for Shell-
ebration Boston!

Join in the celebration of the Conchologists of
America 2010 Convention in Historic Boston, Massachusetts,
and help observe the 100 th year of the Boston Malacological
Club. Convention dates are August 27 th through August 31 st ,
with pre-convention tours August 26 th and 27 th .

The host hotel is the Boston Park Plaza, located in the heart
of downtown Boston. Minutes from Logan International Airport,
the hotel is also close to many of Boston’s finest attractions. The
Boston Park Plaza has 941 recently renovated rooms, five in-house
restaurants and many other amenities, and is the most affordable
venue for downtown Boston. Reservations can be made by calling
(617) 426-2000 or (800) 225-2008 and you must mention ‘COA’
to receive the convention rate (which will be honored 3 days prior
and 3 days after the convention dates), or use the website http://
www.starwoodmeeting.com/Bookcac0826. The special website
address is to reserve the regular state rooms. If a suite or some
other type room is desired, use the hotel’s regular website address,
http://www.bostonparkplaza.com.

NOTE: The Boston Park Plaza has reduced the convention
rate of the hotel staterooms to $169 plus 14% tax, a savings
of $30 from the original rate of $199 per night. In addition,
the entire room block has been upgraded to deluxe guestrooms
with complimentary internet access. Also, COA officers and
your Boston-based club request that you make reservations by
using the Boston Park Plaza hotel contact information (phone
number or special link) and NOT travel sites such as Exnedia
or Travelocitv . In order to be financially feasible, as in all COA
conventions, COA must meet certain contract-related goals
with the hotel, and booking through outside sources does not
give credit to COA toward meeting these goals.

Logan Airport is about six miles from the hotel and
costs approximately $25-$35 by taxi. There is no hotel shuttle,
but independent shuttles cost $14 per person and are available by
calling the Park Plaza concierge service. Note: as in other cities
in the northeast corridor, parking is expensive in Boston and
is typically at least $20 or more for 24 hours. The Park Plaza
does not have its own lot, but there are several private lots nearby;
see the registration insert for details on parking options. Special

temporary parking arrangements will be made for bourse
dealers for loading/unloading at the setup and take down
times. For those of you planning to drive, directions to Boston
and the hotel will be provided in the registration insert.

The convention schedule will start with pre-convention
tours on Thursday, August 26 th and continue with a.m. tours
Friday, August 27 th ; see details on these tours below. Registration
will begin Friday morning, and the convention opening will be at
1 p.m., with the welcoming party Friday evening. Registration will
continue Saturday, August 28 th and the COA annual meeting will
be held in the afternoon with the oral auction that evening. Sunday,
August 29 th and Monday, August 30 th will consist primarily of
programs; dealers’ bourse setup will be Monday in the morning,
with the bourse opening at 1 p.m. that afternoon. The bourse will
conclude Tuesday morning August 31 st and the farewell banquet
will be held that evening. Silent auctions, raffles, and door prizes
will be conducted daily as in the past and the detailed schedules for
these will be available in your registration packets.

Come early and you will be able to enjoy three field
trips on Thursday and two on Friday morning before the official
convention opening ceremony. Here are the field trips planned for
Thursday August 26 th ; see the insert for details on departure times,
duration, and cost.

Historic Concord, Mass. Tour the location of the start of the
American Revolution. Located 16 miles west of Boston, Concord
was home to Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and
Louisa May Alcott. The tour will comprise visits to the Old North
Bridge, the Alcott House, the Concord Museum, and the Concord
Library, which houses an exhibit of the Shells of Concord, collected
by Boston Malacological Club member Kristina Joyce. Through
careful planning and preservation efforts, much of Concord still
looks as it did in revolutionary times.

Harvard Museum of Natural History, Cambridge, Mass.

Tour the fabulous collections, including the Mollusk Department,
Mineral Exhibit (deemed one of the best in America), the Great
Hall of Mammals, and the famous Exhibit of Glass Flowers.

June 2010

American Conchologist

Page 31

Public Garden, Massachusetts State House and Beacon Hill, the
Old State House, Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market, Bunker Hill
Memorial, and the USS Constitution, to name a few. Take a virtual
tour from this link below and crank up the volume! http://www.
bostonducktours. com/tour video .html

Shelling Trip. Although not as bountiful as a Florida mud flat,
shelling can be productive on the beautiful east coast beaches of the
Massachusetts, particularly north of Boston. The trip is planned
for either or both of two such locations, Nahant Beach in Lynn, and
Revere Beach. Several of our New England shell experts from
the Boston club will host this trip. A stop at the famous Kelly’s
Restaurant, a Revere Beach staple since 1951, is planned for lunch.

Field Trips scheduled for Friday morning August 27 th include the
Boston Duck Tour and the U.S.S. Constitution and museum. See
the convention insert for details on departure times, duration, and
cost. Both tours will return in time to get lunch and make the
convention opening ceremony.

U.S.S. Constitution and Museum. You will go aboard the oldest
commissioned warship in the world. A veteran of the War of 1812,
this maritime treasure has been restored to its original splendor.
The 2-hour tour also includes a visit to the USS Constitution
Museum; the ship and the museum are located in the Charlestown
Naval Yard.

Other things to take in. There are many other worthwhile places
and things to see in Boston. There was not enough time to schedule
all of these as field trips, so for those coming early or staying late,
here is a list we recommend for you to do on your own.

Boston Duck Tour. A great way to see many of Boston’s
famous sites and places, the Boston Duck Tour is in W.W.II style
amphibious landing vehicles. The tour takes about 90 minutes
and includes a tour guide and a short water excursion providing
a wonderful skyline view of the city. You will see the Boston

Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market complex. A short taxi ride from
the hotel and close to the waterfront, this is the most visited tourist
site in Boston. Originally a marketplace, these historic buildings
were beautifully restored in the 1970’s and house a myriad of
restaurants, stores, and tourist item vendors. The Fanueuil Hall
auditorium was used in the first protests against taxation and is
still in use today.

Page 32

Vol. 38, No. 2

JFK Library and Museum. Located in Dorchester, a Boston
neighborhood, the JFK Library houses the papers and memorabilia
of our 35 th president.

Boston Public Garden. Only two blocks from the hotel, this
beautiful and serene area is an oasis within the city. Don’t forget
to take a ride on the famous Swan Boats.

Top of the Pru and the Hancock Towers. Spectacular views of
Boston and Cambridge can be seen from the top of both of these
famous landmarks located just a few blocks from the hotel in Back
Bay. The Prudential has an excellent restaurant, ‘Top of the Hub.’

Other interesting places include a tour of Fenway Park, home of
the Boston Red Sox, the Paul Revere House in Boston’s North
End, and the New England Aquarium on Boston’s waterfront.
The Park Plaza concierge can help arrange transportation to these
venues.

Donations

Please donate
shells and shell-
related items that
can be used for
raffle items, silent
auctions, or door
prizes, as well as
specimen-grade
shells for the oral
auction. Shell
donations should
include pertinent
data (name

and locality).

Donations are
tax deductible
and help support
COA grants
and research.

Financial
donations are
accepted as well
and help offset the expense of awards and other convention
necessities. Categories for Financial donations are:

Argentum $10-$99
Aurantium $100-$ 199

Diamantine $200+

In order to be listed in the 2010 COA program booklet, donations
must be postmarked no later than July 10 th , 2010. All shell-related
donations should be sent to Don Robak, 6 John St., Chelsea, MA
02150. Financial donations should be sent to Warren Graff, 18
Noyes Lane, Merrimac, MA 01860. COA APPRECIATES
YOUR SUPPORT!

June 2010

American Conchologist

Page 33

Living Fossils

Zvi Orlin

Above: A preserved coelacanth, Latimeria chalumnae Smith,
1939, caught off Grand Comoro in the Comoros Islands in
1974. In life this ’living fossil' (first discovered live by science
in 1938) is blue with irregular light blue blotches. This speci¬
men weighed 60kg and is 170cm long. It is on display in the
Natural History Museum of Vienna, Austria. A second species,
L. menadoensis Pouyaud, Wirjoatmodjo, Rachmatika, Tjakra-
widjaja, Hadiaty, & Hadie, 1999 was discovered a decade ago
in Indonesia. It is brown in color.

Right: The tuatara, on the right, is in the class Reptilia, but
despite its appearance, it is not a lizard (order Squamata), but
rather the sole surviving genus in the order Sphenodontia (two
living species: Sphenodon guntheri (Duller, 1877) and S. punc-
tatus (Gray, 1842)). The tuatara has been considered as en-

When one sees the phrase ‘living fossils’ the first
images that come to mind are probably the lizard-like tuatara
(Sphenodontidae) of New Zealand or the fish Latimeria or
coelacanth (Latimeriidae) of East African waters. Both can trace
an evolutionary lineage to ancestors living some 200 million years
ago (mya). As our dealings here are with mollusks, I would like to
mention three families that are perhaps among the more interesting
of the phylum, have an ancient lineage, and fit the ‘living fossil’
description. First it is important to clarify what we mean by the
term ‘living fossil.’ Darwin was probably first to coin this phrase
and it has been used and abused ever since. One of the more
interesting definitions I have run across is, “the recent members of
an extinct group of organisms.” Despite the internal contradiction
in that definition, it does portray the meaning. You can find dozens
of definitions on line and in print. Wikipedia has maybe a half
dozen definitions, of which it highlights:

Living fossil is an informal term for any living
species (or clade) of organism which appears
to be the same as a species otherwise only
known from fossils and which has no close
living relatives. These species have all survived
major extinction events, and generally retain
low taxonomic diversities. A species which
successfully radiates (forming many new species
after a possible genetic bottleneck) has become
too successful to be considered a “living fossil.”

dangered since 1895. This intriguing reptile is endemic to New
Zealand where it is confined to 32 offshore islands that were
free of introduced predators like the Polynesian rat and habi¬
tat loss caused by human development. It has recently been
reintroduced to the mainland in a specially prepared sanctu¬
ary. Tuataras can live to be well over 100 years of age. Photo
by Flicker user, Philippi C., on Wikipedia.com

Some authors (Stanley, 1978) believe this term should be
dropped altogether. Despite the difficulties of definition, I have
chosen here to use the phrase ‘living fossil,’ as it is popularly
accepted.

The first ‘living fossil’ molluscan family I think worthy
of mention is the bivalve family Trigoniidae, whose ancestors
evolved during the Ordovician (about 450mya). Only two genera
of this family survived the Cretaceous Mass Extinction (65mya).
In the following Cenozoic Era the genus Eotrigonia became
extinct, leaving Neotrigonia as the sole genus in this family to
survive to modem times. Neotrigonia is found in the waters off
Australia and there are only 5 (or 6, or 11, depending upon the
author) Recent species. The species most generally agreed upon
are: (N. margaritacea (Lamarck, 1804), A. bednalli (Verco, 1907),
N. lamarcki (Gray, 1838), N. gemma Iredale, 1924, N. uniophora
(Gray, 1847) and N. kaiyomarumae Habe and Nomoto, 1976 -
this last is known only from a single specimen from off Western
Australia. Each occupies a segment of the ring of shallow seas
that encircle the continent. They have highly sculpted shells with
prominent ridges or rows of knobs on the outer surface and unusual
profiles of large (in relation to shell size) interlocking hinge teeth.
They also have a highly muscular foot that enables them to burrow
in sand more rapidly than other clams that inhabit the same sandy
areas. In addition, these bivalves have a distinctive heel that
facilitates leaping (like some cockles). These characteristics of
fast burrowing and the ability to leap have probably kept them
one step ahead of their predators. These species are popular with
collectors because of their distinctive outer sculpturing and bright

Page 34

Vol. 38, No. 2

One of the more commonly available broach shells, Neotrigo-
nia bednalli Verco, 1907, 27mm, from 50 feet deep in sand in
the Gulf of St. Vincent, South Australia. Broach shells have an
ancient lineage and should not be dismissed as "just another
small brown bivalve." In fact, a N. bednalli displayed by So¬
phie Ward at the 2009 British Shell Club Annual Shell Show
won the Walter Karo Award for "Shell of the Show."

A small (under 1mm) monoplacophoran,

Veleropilina zografi (Dautzenberg & Fisch¬
er, 1896) trawled at 500 meters, Fiumicino, Italy. It is easy to
see why this shell, without the living animal, would be mis¬
taken for a gastropod. Image courtesy of © Guido & Philippe
Poppe - www.poppe-images.com The inset shows the living
animal, including the pairs of ctenidia (gills), a structure more
similar to chitons than to gastropods. Original image source
unknown.

nacre interior. I am proud to mention that I had two specimens of
Neotrigonia bednali in my shell collection, both from friends in
Australia.

Next is a ‘living fossil’ that is also called a ‘Lazarus taxon,’
a clade that disappears in the fossil record for a period of time and
then reappears as either a fossil or a Recent taxon (the coelacanth
mentioned in the first paragraph also fits this definition). The fossil
record of the order Monoplacophora showed they existed from the
early Cambrian to approximately the mid-Devonian (550 - 380
mya), when they were thought to become extinct. Then in 1952, a
Danish Biologist, Henning M. Lemche (1904 - 1977) discovered
10 living specimens of what he would eventually name Neopilina
galathea Lemche, 1957, trawled while he was a member of the
Galathea Expedition off the coast of Costa Rica at a depth of 3,590
meters. He described the specimens in the order Tryblidiacea - a
monoplacophoran, thought extinct for 380 million years. Later
more specimens were found at depths of up to 6000 meters, which
certainly would account for them remaining undetected for so
long. Once scientists knew what to look for they for they were
able to identify other monoplacophorans that had been collected
earlier but misidentified, usually as limpets. The earliest of these
was perhaps Veleropilina zografi (Dautzenberg & Fischer, 1896),
finally properly identified nearly 100 years later in 1983.

Monoplacophorans are found worldwide in the major
oceans (including off Antarctica and in the Red Sea) and resemble
limpets in outer appearance and chitons in several soft-body part
characteristics, but are different from both, having a nacreous shell
structure, a cap shaped protoconch, and serial multiplications of
several organ systems. Extant species (of which over 20 have
been named) feed on detritus in the cold waters in which they are
found and some have been discovered to have symbiotic bacteria
in the epidermis of their mantle. They have been termed a missing
link between annelids and mollusks, but their anatomy suggests

a strong relationship to modern chitons, despite the difference in
shell morphology. Authorities differ on the exact placement and
status of this group, but whatever the final outcome, they have
certainly provided decades of excitement for some researchers.

Now we come to the third and what I believe are the
most fascinating of our ‘living fossils:’ the family Nautilidae. The
earliest nautiloids (class Cephalopoda) evolved in the Cambrian,
the first period of the Paleozoic Era. They have thick shells
for protection and the interior is sectioned off with calcareous
partitioned chambers of liquid- and gas-filled space. In the
partition between the chambers is a perforation permitting the
passage of a porous tube called the siphuncle that includes blood
vessels, nerves and other tissues. It joins the liquid filled chambers
with the anterior living chamber. The amount of liquid is regulated
by osmosis. If the salt content of the liquid is lower than that of
the animal’s blood, the osmotic gradient causes the liquid to flow
through the blood into the body, leaving behind a gas-filled space.
The role of the siphuncle is to control the gas and liquid content
of the chambers. This creates a buoyancy organ, enabling them
to hover weightlessly above the sea bottom and swoop down on
their prey, or ascend from the ocean depths at night to feed near the
surface. They are jet propelled predators, catching prey with their
tentacles and biting off chunks of flesh with a parrot-like beak.
The gas contained in the inner chambers is at a very low pressure
and thus has an implosion depth limit at which the pressure of
the sea could crush the shell. This means nautiloids could only
submerge down to about 600 meters, but most probably lived up
to about 300 meters in comparatively shallower depths. The shell
system has a very slow growth rate and it can take up to 20 years
for the animal to reach full adult size.

Fishes evolved in the Early Paleozoic, but were mainly
found in freshwater lakes, ponds, and streams. By the Devonian,
they had invaded the sea and evolved true jaws. They attacked

June 2010

American Conchologist

Page 35

Nautilus belauensis Saunders, 1981, photographed off Palau
by Lee R. Berger, courtesy of Wikipedia.

young nautiloids and the characteristic slow nautiloid growth
became a major liability. The nautiloids dwindled as fish
proliferated. Closely related cephalopods, the ammonites, seemed
to partially solve the predation problem by producing vast numbers
of tiny eggs (nautiloids produced only few eggs at a time with slow
rates of development). Thus ammonites, with numerous young
floating in the plankton, could be carried by currents to widely
separated parts of the globe. By the end of the Devonian they
radiated explosively into many hundreds of new species. Over
80 genera existed at that time, but they were later annihilated
by successive mass extinctions. They became common in the
Mesozoic Era (the Age of Dinosaurs) with over 400 genera in the
Triassic circ. 220 mya. Despite a mass extinction at the end of the
Triassic, when only two genera survived, they radiated again in
the Jurassic. By the early Cretaceous they were amongst the most
common creatures of the sea. The subsequent mass extinction at
the end of the Cretaceous (referred to as the KT extinction circ. 65
mya) annihilated them, after a 300 million year reign.

The cardinal question is why did the nautiloids survive
the KT extinction? According to P.T. Ward (1991), one of the
reasons is that Nautilus eggs seem to be laid and kept at great
depths (100-300 meters) during the year it takes them to develop.
The KT catastrophe may have killed off all juvenile and adult
ammonites as well as nautiloids, but it is possible that the slow
developing nautiloid eggs were preserved in the depths. In any
case, only two nautiloid genera survived to the present, Nautilus
and Allonautilus (though there is still some dispute about the status
of this second genus). They are represented by only five species (or
six, or seven, again depending upon author). Generally accepted
species of Nautilidae are: Allonautilus perforatus (Conrad, 1849)
(Indonesia); Allonautilus scrobiculatus (Lightfoot, 1786) (Papua
new Guinea and the Solomon Islands); Nautilus belauensis
Saunders, 1981 (Palau); Nautilus macromphalus Sowerby, 1848
(New Caledonia to NE Australia); Nautilus pompilius Linnaeus,
1758 (type) (southern Japan to Australia and Indonesia to Fiji);
Nautilus stenomphalus Sowerby, 1848 (Queensland, Australia).

There are, of course, other cephalopods that demonstrate
an ancient lineage. Perhaps of most interest here would be Spirula

spirula (Linnaeus, 1758). This deep-sea dweller looks like a
squid, but is actually the last surviving member of the fossil family
Belemnoidea (belemnites), a group of squid-like creatures that are
related to ammonites and may have giving rise to modern squids
and cuttlefish. Today, Spirula spirula is mostly known from the
small white spiral shell that is completely enclosed inside the
animal in life, but often washes ashore on tropical and temperate
beaches after the animal dies.

Are these the only living fossils of mollusks? Certainly
not, but how many mollusks can be traced back in the fossil record
for at least 150 mya? I have searched my available literature and
would like to present a list of the extant common families whose
ancestors I was able to trace back further than 150 mya. I have
not added the Cretaceous Period as it borders on the Cenozoic Era,
when most of the present extant species of mollusks evolved and
can be traced by more recent fossils. My list is limited to families
well known to most shell collectors.

Mesozoic Era:

Jurassic - Aporrhaidae, Epitoniidae, Ringiculidae,
Cylichnidae, Physidae, Retusidae, Ellobiidae, Siphonariidae.
Arcidae, Anomiidae, Tellinidae, Arcticidae, Thraciidae, Teuthidae,
Sepiidae

Triassic - Scissurellidae, Fissurellidae, Neritidae,
Strombidae, Naticidae, Architectonicidae, Mytilidae, Pteriidae,
Limidae, Ostreidae, Gryphaeidae, Spondylidae

Paleozoic Era:

Carboniferous - Acteonidae, Pinnidae
Devonian - Solemyidae, Nuculanidae, Pectinidae,
Cardiidae

Ordivician - Trochidae, Buccinidae, Scaphapoda
Cambrian - Pleurotomariidae, Chitons

References:

Anonomous. Internet accessed in 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Living_fossil

Clausen C.D. 1976. Neopolina: A Living Fossil, Origins , 3(1): 56-59.
Fenton C.L., Fenton M.A., Rich P.V. and Rich T.H. 1989. “The Fossil
Book,” Revised and Expanded, Doubleday, New York, 740 pp.

Lemche, Henning & Wingstrand, Karl Georg. 1957. “The anatomy of
Neolipina galatheae Lemche, 1957 (Mollusca Tryblidiacea),” Zoological
Museum, University of Copenhagen, 71 pp.

Levin H.L. 1999. “Ancient Invertebrates and Their Living Relatives,”
Prentice Hall Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, USA. 358 pp.

Ponder W.F. and Lindberg D.R. (editors) 2008. “Phylogeny and
Evolution of the Mollusca.” University of California Press, Berkeley and
Los Angeles, California, 469 pp.

Stanley S.M. 1978. Aspects of the adaptive morphology and evolution
of the Trigoniidae, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of
London, Vol. 284.B., 247-258.

Ward P.D. 1991. “On Methusaleh’s Trail,” W.H. Freeman and Company,
New York, 212 pp.

Zvi Orlin

zviorlin@actcom .co.il

Qpisthosioma mirabite E,A. Smith, 189,1
4,5mm, on limestone rack, Borneo

Page 2

Vol. 38, No. 3

CONCHOLOGISTS

OF AMERICA, INC.

In 1972, a group of shell collectors saw the need for a national or¬
ganization devoted to the interests of shell collectors; to the beauty of
shells, to their scientific aspects, and to the collecting and preservation of
mollusks. This was the start of COA. Our membership includes novices,
advanced collectors, scientists, and shell dealers from around the world.
In 1995, COA adopted a conservation resolution: Whereas there are an
estimated 100,000 species of living mollusks, many of great economic,
ecological, and cultural importance to humans and whereas habitat de¬
struction and commercial fisheries have had serious effects on mollusk
populations worldwide, and whereas modem conchology continues the
tradition of amateur naturalists exploring and documenting the natural
world, be it resolved that the Conchologists of America endorses respon¬
sible scientific collecting as a means of monitoring the status of mollusk
species and populations and promoting informed decision making in
regulatory processes intended to safeguard mollusks and their habitats.

OFFICERS

President: Alice Monroe
2468 Timbercrest Circle West
Clearwater, FL 33763-1626
(727) 796-5115
monroea@spcollege. edu
Treasurer: Steven Coker
332 Banyan St.

Lake Jackson, TX 77566
(979) 297-0852
shellman7000@sbcglobal. net
Membership: Doris Underwood
7529 Ensemble Lane
Melbourne, FL 32904
dunderwood 13 @cfl .rr. com
(321) 622-4372
Trustee: Fabio Moretzsohn
Harte Research Institute
6300 Ocean Drive, Unit 5869
Corpus Christi, TX 78412-5869
(361) 876-8910
mollusca@gmail. com
Web Page Coordinator:

Jose Coltro
CX.P 15011

Sao Paulo, SP 01599-970
Brasil

55-11-5081-7261
jose@femorale.com
Director-at- Large:

Harry G. Lee
4132 Ortega Forest Dr.
Jacksonville, FL 32210
Convention Coordinator:

Anne Joffe

1163 Kittiwake Circle

Sanibel, FL 33957-3605

Vice President: Jose Leal
3075 Sanibel-Captiva Road
Sanibel, FL 33957-1580
(239) 395-2233
jleal@shellmuseum.org
Secretary: BobbiCordy
385 Needle Boulevard
Merritt Island, FL 32952-6107
(321)452-5736
corshell@earthlink.net
COA Awards Chairman:

Donald Dan
6704 Overlook Drive
Ft. Myers, FL 33919
(239) 481-6704
donaldan@aol. com
Historian: Mary Ruth Foglino
4 Trent Court

Smithtown, NY 11787-1266
(631)265-7811
foglinh@sunysuffolk.edu
Past President: Henry W. Chaney
Santa Barbara Mus of Nat History
2559 Puesta del Sol Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93105
hchaney @sbnature2. org
Academic Grants Director:

Daniel Geiger

Santa Barbara Mus of Nat History
Invertebrate Zoology
2559 Puesta del Sol Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93105 - USA
(805) 682 4711 xl52
geiger@vetigastropoda. com

Visit the COA website: http://conchologistsofamerica.org.
Subscribe to Conch-L, the COA listserver (owned and operat¬
ed by the University of Georgia) at: listserv@listserv.uga.edu
Instructions for joining Conch-L are on the COA web site.

AMERICAN CONCHOLOGIST, the official publication of the Conchol¬
ogists of America, Inc., and issued as part of membership dues, is published
quarterly in March, June, September, and December, printed by Cardinal
Printing, 341 Vincennes Street, New Albany, IN 47150. All correspondence
should go to the Editor. ISSN 1072-2440.

Articles in AMERICAN CONCHOLOGIST may be reproduced with
proper credit. We solicit comments, letters, and articles of interest to shell
collectors, subject to editing. Opinions expressed in “signed” articles are
those of the authors, and are not necessarily the opinions of Conchologists
of America. All correspondence pertaining to articles published herein
or generated by reproduction of said articles should be directed to the Edi¬
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MEMBERSHIP is for the calendar year, January-December, late mem¬
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Advertising in AMERICAN CONCHOLOGIST is presented as a ser¬
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Copy changes $25. Send advertising copy to the editor, Tom Eich-
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Advertising Director:

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Jose H. Leal
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September 2010

American Conchologist

Page 3

In This Issue

Letters and Comments-3

Conus archetypus Crosse, 1865, in northwestern Panama

by Emilio F. Garcia-4

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, or never say
“never” by Harry Lee-6

A geographic extension for two species of Favartia
(Muricidae: Muricopsinae) from the western Atlantic
by Emilio F. Garcia-10

Book Review: “The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating”-12

Book Review: “Encyclopedia of Texas Seashells”-13

In Memoriam-14

COA Award Winners-15

Dealer Directory-16

New generic assignments for Strombidae: A summary of recent
changes by Winston A. Barney-19

Andrew Grebneff (1959-2010)-23

Robert C. “Bob” Dayle (1946-2010)-23

Cozumel, Mexico by Jim Lyle-24

Are those Mexican slippers? by J.M. Inchaustegui-26

Report on the Epitoniidae of the East China Sea: Part 2
by Lenny Brown-27

A reclusive Tennessee snail: Anguispira picta (Clapp, 1920)
(Discidae) by Tom Eichhorst-30

Front cover: Anguispira picta (Clapp, 1920), a seldom
seen land snail limited to one small valley in Tennessee.
One of three common names for this snail is painted
snake coiled forest snail. This is a protected species and
these shells were dead collected by Doug Shelton with a
permit from and working for the state of Tennessee (see
article on page 30). Photo by Doug Shelton.

Back cover: Tridacna gigas (Linnaeus, 1758), the giant
clam, can grow to four feet. This specimen was photo¬
graphed in the Solomon Islands, image courtesy of Si¬
mon^ Specimen Shells Ltd. at: www.simons-specimen-
shells.com/ Hopefully Simon Aiken will have a full report
with photos for the next issue.

Editor’s comments: I am just about ready to put this issue
to bed and I thought I ought to thank my contributors.
I cannot always use everything I get from potential
contributors, but please believe me when I say I value
every article. The success of American Conchologist
is due to the many people who continue to support this
magazine; authors, photographers, proof readers, and
staff (the folks who print inserts and mailing labels, stuff
envelopes, and haul boxes of magazines to be posted).
Now, an apology for not including an article on the
COA convention in Boston. It was a great convention, I
repeat, a great convention. I have not heard anyone who
attended say anything but nice things about the fantastic
efforts by the Boston folks that ensured everything went
as programmed. I forgot my camera (bit of a hassle with
a changing flight schedule) and have not yet received any
pictures of the event. When I do get them I will have more
to say about the convention. And speaking of pictures, if
you win the COA Award, please send me a picture or two
along with the announcement. I need the image in order
to post the winners in the magazine.

I believe this issue should have something to interest most
of our readers. We have articles on Conidae, Cypraeidae
(left-handed no less), Epitoniidae, land snails, Caribbean
shells, Red Sea shells, Muricidae, Strombidae, and images
from Mexico. I think that is a pretty fair cross section of
conchological subjects. Sadly we also have two deaths
to report: Andrew Grebneff and Bob Dayle. Both are
individuals I knew and liked, while never having met
either one in person. Yet because of the Internet I knew
both as well as many friends I see in town. We often
lament the “graying of our hobby,” but both Andrew and
Bob were quite a ways from that label. Losing young
shellers is doubly painful.

Finally some business. Carlos Henkes sets up and runs
our COA web site. He knows his business and can pretty
much do anything asked as far as the web site goes. What
we need is someone interested in providing material for
Carlos to post. This person does not have to be a computer
expert (although computer skills would certainly help),
just have an interest in making the COA website current,
up-to-date, and useful for both members and nonmembers.
If you have thought, “Why doesn’t the COA website have
“such and such?” then maybe you are what we need. Give
me a call or email me.

Tom Eichhorst

Page 4

Vol. 38, No. 3

Conus archetypus Crosse, 1865, in northwestern Panama

Emilio Fabian Garcia

During my visit to Bocas del Toro Archipelago,
northwestern Panama (see American Conchologist vol. 38, no. 2,
June 2010), I collected some puzzling “little red cones” that did
not look like any of their congeners from the western Caribbean. I
had consulted Olsson & McGinty (1958), who had done extensive
collecting in the archipelago; among the cones listed, however,
only the taxon “ Conus regius cardinalis Hwass” seemed to be
similar enough to qualify as a misidentification for this cone. I had
collected only one specimen of C. cardinalis , but had on hand five
specimens of the cone in question, so I presume that Olsson and
McGinty did collect this species, as four of my specimens were
collected in the drift line and exposed reef, not SCUBA diving.
Moreover, they were collected at three different stations: NE Isla
Colon (Figs. 1-3), Bastimento Norte (Figs. 4-5), and Zapatillas
Key No. 1 (Figs. 6-8). The specimens were put away until recently,
when I needed to get back to them because I was preparing a report
on mollusks from the archipelago (Garcia, 2010).

As luck would have it I was also working on a paper on
turrids and I asked Mr. John Tucker for help in obtaining a copy of
an old turrid description. He complied and then we started “talking
cones,” so I took the opportunity to send him images of the Bocas
specimens. John suggested some possibilities and sent some
images, and we finally narrowed it down to a cone complex that
comprises Conus ziczac Miihlfeld, 1816 (Fig. 14), C. archetypus
Crosse, 1865, C. beddomei Sowerby, 1901, and C. brasiliensis
Clench, 1942.

The taxonomy of this group is somewhat nebulous and
cone specialists differ in their opinions, considering some of these
taxa as either synonyms, subspecies, or perhaps a single, very
variable species, as John does. This would be Conus ziczac.

The Bocas cones match very well the holotype of Conus
brasiliensis (Figs. 10-11), but since this taxon is considered to be a
junior synonym of C. archetypus (Figs. 12-13) by cone specialists,
I am calling it by the latter name. I have in my collection, however,
a specimen of Conus “beddomei ” from Brazil that is also very
similar to the Bocas cones (Fig. 9), one from the Granadines that
seems to be an intermediate form (Fig. 16), and still another from
the same island group (Fig. 17) that resembles the holotype of C.
ziczac. Moreover, the holotypes of Conus ziczac (Fig. 14) and C.
beddomei (Fig. 15) are rather similar, considering that the holotype
of C. ziczac is probably a juvenile, measuring only 8.2 mm and
probably has a proportionately higher spire than it would as an
adult (compare Figs. 14 and 15, as well as Fig. 17). So, perhaps
after the dust is settled, John’s suggestion may be the answer and
the name of the Bocas cone may turn out to be Conus ziczac. That
is for the specialists to decide.

Although typical Conus archetypus has until recently
been restricted to Brazil, Macsotay & Campos (2001:109) reported
collecting 16 specimens of Conus brasiliensis in Venezuela by
SCUBA diving. On the other hand, Diaz & Puyana (1994) do
not report it from Colombia. When Clench described Conus
brasiliensis , his remarks concerning the Brazilian molluscan fauna
were that “though mainly West Indian in the character of its fauna,
there are many species known from this region that appear only in

the northern Caribbean or to the south of it.” (Clench, 1942: 25)
The new record places Conus archetypus in Central America, that
is, “to the west of it.”

My special thanks go to Mr. John Tucker, Illinois Natural
History Survey, for sending images and literature concerning
this project that allowed me to gain a clearer picture of this cone
complex, and to Dr. Alan Kohn, Professor Emeritus, University of
Washington, who graciously gave his permission to use his images
of the holotypes of Conus ziczac, C. archetypus, C. beddomei, and
C. brasiliensis.

Clench, W. J. 1942. The Genus Conus in the Western Atlantic. Johnsonia
1(6) 1-40.

Coomans, HE. Moolenbeek, RG. Wils, E., 1982. Alphabetic revision
of the (sub)species in recent Conidae 5. baccatus to byssinus, including
Conus brettinghami nomen novum. Basteria 46(l-4):3-67.

Diaz, J. M. and M. Puyana. 1994. Moluscos del Caribe Colombiano.
291 pp., [8] + 78 pis. Colciencias y Fundacion Natura Colombia: Santafe
de Bogota.

Garda, E. F. 2010. Bocas del Toro revisited. A follow-up of Olsson &
McGinty’s report on the Panamanian Archipelago. American Conchologist
38(2): 4-12.

Macsotay, O. and R. Campos Villarroel. 2001. Moluscos representativos
de la Plataforma de Margarita - Venezuela, [iii], iii, 280 pp., 32 pis. Editora
Rivolta: Valencia, Venezuela.

Olsson, A. A. and T. L. McGinty. 1958. Recent marine mollusks from
the Caribbean coast of Panama with the description of some new genera
and species. Bulletins of American Paleontology 39:1-58.

Emilio Fabian Garcia
115 Oak Crest Dr.

Lafayette, LA 70503, USA
Efg2112@louisiana.edu

1-8. Conus archetypus Crosse, 1865, Bocas del Toro Archipelago,
Panama. 1-3. 9°22.027’N, 82°14.336’W, Isla Colon, 24.9mm
(EFG 25559). 4-5. 9°21.052’N, 82°15.34’W, Bastimento Norte,
16.9mm (EFG 25656). 6 - 8 . 9°15.564’N, 82°02.750’W, Zapatilla
Key No. 1, 4-12 m, 21.9mm (EFG 25670). 9. Conus beddomei
Sowerby III, 1901, Natal, Brazil, in 20 m, 18.7mm (EFG 27024).
10-11. Conus brasiliensis Clench, 1942, holotype, Museum of
Comparative Zoology, Harvard; Brazil, Victoria, Espirito Santo
state, 22mm (image courtesy Dr. Alan Kohn). 12-13. Conus
archetypus Crosse, 1865, holotype, (The Natural History Museum,
Fondon), Brazil, Baia de Todos os Santos, Salvador, State of Bahia,
24.9mm (image courtesy Dr. Alan Kohn). 14. Conus ziczac
Miihlfeld, 1816, holotype, (Naturhistorisches Museum, Wien,
Vienna) Mediterranean Sea (erroneous), 8.2mm (image courtesy
Dr. Alan Kohn). 15. Conus beddomei Sowerby III, 1901,
holotype, (The Natural History Museum, Fondon), West Indies,
restricted to Grenadines, Fesser Antilles by Coomans, Moolenbeek
& Wils (1982), 27mm (image courtesy Dr. Alan Kohn). 16. Conus
beddomei Sowerby III, Carriacou, Grenadines, 15 ft., in rubble,
25.8mm (EFG 24282). 17. Conus beddomei Sowerby III, 1901.
Mustique I., Grenadines, SCUBA in 10-15’, 21.1mm (EFG 6544).

September 2010

American Conchologist

Page 5

Page 6 Vol. 38, No. 3

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, or never say “never”

by Harry G. Lee

Recently, a note from Dr. Pete Simpson of Loudon, Ten¬
nessee, called to mind one of the odder auguries in the culture of
conchology.

Late in his distinguished career, Franz Alfred Schilder,
the most prolific Twentieth Century authority on the Cypraeidae,
made the pronouncement that “nobody will find a sinistral cow¬
ry” (Schilder, 1964). Prof Schilder’s confidence was born of his
examination of “more than 150,000 cowries” and a probable fa¬
miliarity with the several inclusive surveys of mutant gastropod
sinistrality (Fischer and Bouvier, 1892; Sykes, 1905;Ancey, 1906;
Dautzenberg, 1914; and Pelseneer, 1920) by fellow Europeans,
none of which provided any indication of such an anomaly. Dr.
Schilder went on to impugn the veracity a report of a sinistral No-
tocypraea declivis (G.B. Sowerby II, 1870) in the South Australian
[SA] Museum (Griffiths, 1962) with faintly-veiled skepticism.

Apparently, the gauntlet was never retrieved by Griffiths,
but it didn’t take long for Schilder’s pervasive prediction to be
repudiated by a fellow Aussie. Early in 1967, Jack Aitken took
a sinistral Bistolida brevidentata brevidentata (G.B. Sowerby II,
1870) off Tryon Island, Capricorn Group, Queensland, Australia.
It was reported in the 9/67 Keppel Bay Tidings and illustrated in
the 12/67 number of that periodical accompanied by a Don By¬
rne photo. Mrs. Val Harris of Caloundra, Qld., the second owner,
sold it to Luigi Raybaudi Massilia of Rome, Italy, in 1976 (Harris,
personal communication, 23 May, 1980; Raybaudi, 1987: 2 color
figs.), and it has changed hands at least twice since then. Despite
its present obscurity, the shell, or at least the two sets of its photo¬
graphic images, has left its imprint in the annals of conchology.

Not long afterward, Peter Dance published a set of pho¬
tographs depicting a sinistral 30mm Cypraeovula capensis capen-
sis (Gray, 1828) found by Mrs. Viva Armstrong of East London,
South Africa, at nearby Sunrise on Sea in November, 1970. Al¬
though the Aitken shell escaped Peter’s notice, the Griffiths (1962)
record was apparently taken on faith and incorporated in his report
(Dance, 1972). Things were already beginning to warm up.

As the situation continued to evolve, “snowballing”
turned out to be a more apt metaphor. Over the final quarter of the
Twentieth Century and into the present one, the Republic of South
Africa (RSA), especially the beaches of Jeffreys and Algoa Bays,
continued to produce sinistral cypraeids at an unprecedented rate
(as in two dozen; count them below) and unparalleled diversity
(six species):

Cypraeovula c. capensis'.

To the Dance record, which shell later reached the collection of
Enrico Caponetto of Naples, Italy (Dance, 1972, Burgess, 1985),
we can add:

[2] Gwen Pini’s (Innisfail, Australia) shell, apparently collected
not long afterwards at Jeffreys Bay, RSA. A notice with photo ap¬
peared in Keppel Bay Tidings sometime around 1973 (my cropped
photocopy lacks any evidence for a more precise citation) and a
little over a year later in Tom Rice’s journal (Anon., 1975).

[3] A specimen illustrated by Burgess (1985: 269). It is distinct
from the Armstrong and Pini specimens.

[3] An unattributed (“private treaty”) 29mm shell collected on the
beach at East London and figured by Raybaudi (1986: 33; fig. 43
[35]) appears to be the Armstrong-Caponetto specimen.

[4, 5] Subsequently, two shells were collected (1986, 1991), at
least the first one on the shore of Algoa Bay, by Mariette Jearey
(Jearey, 2000).

[6] A shell found on the beach at Algoa Bay in 2008, Lee Collec¬
tion, 31.1mm, Fig. 1.

Cypraeovula alfredensis alfredensis (M. Schilder and F.A. Schil¬
der, 1929):

[7] A shell found on the beach at Jeffreys Bay in 2005, Lee Collec¬
tion, 26.0mm, Fig. 2.

Cypraeovula mikeharti Lorenz, 1985:

[8] A shell collected alive in False Bay, RSA, and declared to be,
along with the Aitken shell discussed above, “by far the rarest
cowrie in the world” (Raybaudi, 1992). The locality of the discov¬
ery was refined to “off Cape Agulhas” (de Bruin, 1994: 39).

Cypraeovula edentula edentula (Gray, 1825):

[9] Pat Burgess (1985: 269) reported a specimen.

[10] Raybaudi (1987] reported a second specimen, also beach-
collected.

[10 or 11] Bruno de Bruin (1994) reported a specimen, possibly
one of the above two, not unlikely the next on the list, but possibly
neither.

[11 or 12] A shell collected on the beach at Jeffreys Bay and re¬
ceived from Bruno (Don Pisor, personal communication, 30 June,
2010; (collected in 1990, 25.5mm).

[12 or 13] A shell collected at Jeffreys Bay in 1996, Lee Collec¬
tion, 23.7mm, Fig. 3 left. That makes at least three ... hold the
presses:

[16 to 20] Guido Poppe (pers. comm., 29 June, 2000) reported
seven specimens in private European collections - five of which
belong to a single individual. Of the specimens listed above,
anywhere from none to three could be among these seven. Then
there’s the Internet account at <http://cowryforum.bboard.de/
board/ftopic-41123903nx25725-170.html> of a Belgian collector
who picked a “2/3 piece” of a sinistral C. e. edentula from a shell
bin in an Oostende shell shop and later “simply threw it away.”
Given revelations like Guido’s and the shell-chucker’s, one quick¬
ly realizes that achieving a complete inventory is a more elusive
goal than the “mere” discovery of a leftie cowrie.

Cypraeovula fuscodentata fuscodentata (Gray, 1825):

[17 to 21] From a beach in the RSA (Burgess, 1985: 269).

[20 to 24] Litved (1989: 96) listed three specimens.

[21 to 25] A shell found on the beach at Jeffreys Bay in 1995, Lee
Collection, 29.3mm, Fig. 3 middle.

Cypraeovula fuscorubra fuscorubra (Shaw, 1909):

[22 to 26] De Bruin (1994) reported collecting a living specimen
in 46 meters off Cape Pt., RSA and produced fine photographs of

September 2010

American Conchologist

Page 7

Fig. 1 Sinistral (L) and dextral (R) Cypraeovula capensis
capensis, 31.1mm (sinistral specimen), Algoa Bay, Republic of
South Africa.

it in juxtaposition with a living dextral critter. This report is the
most fully-documented account of a live-taken sinistral cowrie. A
fine image of this shell is posted at <http://cowryforum.bboard.de/
board/ftopic-41123903nx25725-170.html>.

Although no match for the RSA, Australia did manage
to re-emerge on the scene with an interesting record, Notocypraea
angustata (Gmelin, 1791). Mrs. Peg Altorfer of Port Mac Don¬
nell, SA, found a living example “in daylight, under rocks during
an average low tide” at Racecourse Bay (in her home town) during
the second week of February, 1977. She reported it to be “only
the second sinistral form of Cypraea angustata found in the area
over the last twenty five years” (Keppel Bay Tidings ca. 1978: my

Fig. 2 Dextral (L) and sinistral (R) Cypraeovula alfredensis,
26mm (sinistral specimen), beach at Jeffreys Bay, Republic of
South Africa.

cropped photocopy lacks remainder of citation). The whereabouts
of the earlier find were not provided, but there’s a reasonable
chance it is the Notocypraea “declivis ” cited by Griffiths (1962)
in the SA Museum, of which Raybaudi (1987) wrote “according
to my informers ... the sinistral declivis ... does not exist,” sup¬
porting earlier skepticism (Schilder, 1964). It is a near certainty
that this Altorfer specimen is the one identified (later in the same
disjointed polemic) as N. comptonii mayi (Beddome, 1898) from
Port Mac Donnel [sic], SA (Raybaudi, 1987). This shell, which
to this day still bears the binomen applied by Mrs. Altorfer, came
to the Lee Collection in May, 1980; it measures 26.6mm, Fig. 3
right. Dr. Felix Lorenz (personal communication, 11 July, 2010)
confirmed the identification. In that same correspondence he re-

Fig. 3 Sinistral (L) and dextral (R) Cypraeovula edentula edentula (L), 23.7 (sinistral specimen), collected in Jeffreys Bay, RSA, in
1996; Cypraeovula fuscodentata fuscodentata (Middle), 29.3mm (sinistral specimen), collected on the beach at Jeffreys Bay, RSA,
1995; and Notocypraea angustata (R), 26.6mm, (sinistral specimen), collected by Peg Altorfer under rocks at low tide at night in
Port Mac Donnell, South Australia, 1977.

Page 8

Vol. 38, No. 3

ported having recently examined another sinistral Notocypraea , N.
comptonii comptonii (Gray, 1840) [form trenberthae Trenberth,
1961],

The exclusivity of the Southern Hemisphere as the breed¬
ing grounds of sinistral cypraeids was finally terminated with the
report of a sinistral Muracypraea mus mus (Linnaeus, 1758) ap¬
parently collected alive by Royce Hubert in Venezuela (Anon.,

1985) . At that time the shell, measuring “approximately 50mm,”
was in the possession of Alex Kerstitch of Tucson, AZ. Shortly,
two 34mm juveniles were reported from the vicinity (Hoeblich,

1986) , and Raybaudi (1987) recorded these three specimens while
illustrating the Hubert specimen (without attribution) in color.
Very recently, Felix Lorenz (personal communication, 22 March,
2009; see Internet link below) posted an image of a fourth speci¬
men, a beautiful live-taken adult shell.

For an inventory of this sort, the necessary reliance on the
“gray” literature invites a certain exposure to apochrypha. One
striking instance is the report by Raybaudi (1987) of a sinistral
Brazilian Macrocypraea zebra (Linnaeus, 1758) [as M. z. dissi-
milis (F. Schilder, 1924), now considered a synonym]. This spec¬
tacular “find” was repeated in Litved (1989: 96), but, after a few
more years, Raybaudi (1994) issued a retraction, stating simply:
“zebra a mistake.” More than one forensic scenario comes to mind
to explain this prodigious gaffe.

Getting back to the subject of Dr. Simpson’s tidings...
Pete told me that a contact of his was sending him an unusual
Mauritia mauritiana (Linnaeus, 1758) which, like the specimens
discussed above and judging from a photograph sent in advance
(Figure 4; topical shell on R), appeared to be of reversed coil. It
measured 70mm and was collected at 5-10 meters on an open reef
just off Laminusa Island, a satellite of Siasi Island, near Jolo in the
Sulu Archipelago, southernmost Philippines.

As we awaited the shell’s arrival, clouds of skepticism be¬
gan to mass. First Emilio Power (personal communication 9 July,
2010) opined: “The mauritiana looks odd, the posterior is sinistral,
however, the aperture and dentition ARE NOT reversed. Needs an
x-ray for determination, no???” and Felix Lorenz (personal com¬
munication 10 July, 2010): “If you look sharp you will see that
Pete's shell (assuming it is the one on the right of the photo) is not
sinistral. The columella is on the left side where it belongs. The
labrum is exceptionally wide and the aperture peculiarly curved as
a result of malformation, giving the impression that ‘something is
wrong.’"

The shell arrived a few days later, and, since Pete is a
practicing physician, it was not a great inconvenience to obtain
Xrays of the two shells in Figure 4. They confirm the Power-Lo-
renz hypothesis: the odd M mauritiana [Figure 5: middle image]
grew like the normal specimen [Figure 5: L] for most of its exis¬
tence; the significant morphologic anomaly was limited to the final
stages of growth, involving the callus formation of the posterior
half of the aperture. Figure 5: R is a hypothetical sinistral shell
created by mirroring the normal image. Regrettably, the sinistral
M mauritiana must remain imaginary; although of great interest,
Pete’s Siasi shell is dextral.

During the suspenseful week or so that this specimen
was in transit, I realized that it had the potential to be (1) the first
known sinistral of its species, (2) only the second left-handed
cowrie species collected N of the equator, (3) the largest sinistral

Fig. 4 The oddly-shaped specimen of Mauritia mauritiana (R),
70mm, collected on an open reef off Laminusa Island, Sulu Ar¬
chipelago, Philippines. When compared to a normal specimn
(L), it is understandable why it was initially thought to be sinis¬
tral.

cypraeid on record, and (4) only the second instance of cypraeid
coiling reversal in a species with a free-swimming larva - a trait
shared only by the iconic Bistolida brevidentata brevidentata , and
a fact confirmed by Dr, Lorenz in the communication cited above.
Although none of these marks was realized, the last consideration
led to a potentially valuable insight on cowrie sinistrality and chi¬
ral reversal in general.

Litved (1989: 96) remarked that in all but one of the
known instances, the mutant sinistral cypraeid species known to
him shared a trait: lecithotrophy. Instead of swimming to join the
ranks of the plankton, their young simply crawl away from their
egg capsules. For cowrie species, this life-style is the exception
rather than the rule, and it is characteristic of the temperate waters
of the Southern Hemisphere, where it has evolved independently
in genera like Austrocypraea , Umbilia , Zoila, as well as the now
familiar Cypraeovula and Notocypraea (Wilson, 1985, 1998).
The lecithotropic Muracypraea is a rare exception as nearly all the
other myriad tropical species produce free-swimming (planktotro-
phic) larvae. The most familiar, widely-distributed, and abundant
cowries, e.g., Cypraea tigris (Linnaeus, 1758), Mauritia arabica
(Linnaeus, 1758), Monetaria annulus (Linnaeus, 1758), M. caput-
serpentis (Linnaeus, 1758), M moneta (Linnaeus, 1758), are but
a few of this legion. It has been remarked many times that the
complete lack of a sinistral example of any of these five ubiqui¬
tous planktotrophic species alone, many millions of specimens of
which have come into human hands, is an amazement. Compound
this with the 200-odd other species-level members of the legion,
and the crawl-away/swim-away disparity is even more stark with
respect to mutant sinsitrality.

Hendricks (2009) found a similar bias in mutant sinistral
conesnails and he remarked that it may be more than mere co¬
incidence that Contraconus Olsson and Harbison, 1953, the only
normally sinistral lineage in the family, was lecithotrophic. The
vast majority of the over 100 marine gastropod species reported
at <http://www.jaxshells.org/reverse.htm> as reverse-coiled mu-

September 2010

American Conchologist

Page 9

Fig. 5 Xray images of a normally coiled Mauritia mauritiana (L), the specimen origi¬
nally thought to be sinistral (M), and “mirror image” of a normal dextral specimen
(R) showing what a sinistral specimen would look like.

tants likewise have crawl-away, not swim-
away, larvae (Lee, unpublished). Finally,
with the exception of the Triphoridae,
all of the normally sinistral Tertiary and
Quarternary marine gastropods for which
larval history is known or can be inferred,
e.g., Laeocochlidinae Golikov and Staro-
bogatov, 1987; the buccinids Antistreptus
Dali, 1902, Neptunea contraria (Linnaeus,

1771), Neptunea laeva Golikov, Gory¬
achev, and Kantor, 1987, Prosipho con-
trarius Thiele, 1912, Prosipho perversus
Powell, 1951, Prosipho reversus Powell,

1958, and Pyrolofusus Morch, 1869; the
busyconines Busycon perversum (Linnae¬
us, 1758) and Tropochasca Olsson, 1967,

Sinistralia H. and A. Adams, 1853, Con-
traconus , Terebra inversa Nyst, 1835; and
six lineages of “classic” turrids are leci-
thotrophic (Lee, unpublished).

What is the basis for the link between sinistrality and
lecithotrophy in marine snails? One reasonable hypothesis is that
the planktonic milieu may exert stronger selective pressure against
randomly-mutated reverse-coiled larvae relative to their normal
counterparts than that imposed on hatchlings directly adopting
the benthic lifestyle. Perhaps a parallel may be drawn with the
terrestrial pulmonates, which group comfortably passes all its lar¬
val stages in ovo, and proceeds to have a much higher frequency
of normal and mutant reversal of coil than their marine cousins
(Pelseneer, 1920; Lee, unpublished), but I digress....

Even without the Mauritia mauritiana coup-de-grace I
anticipated when I began this essay, we can still be secure that
well over two dozen sinistral Recent cypraeid specimens [22 to 26
known from the RSA + 7 from other localities] of no less than ten
species repose in collections somewhere today - a rather stirring
statistic, a testimony to lecithotrophy, and a poignant riposte to
Herr Dr. Schilder’s pessimistic prophecy of just two generations
ago.

Acknowledgements: I thank Emilio Power for help locating some of the
references in the popular literature, Dr. Pete Stimpson for information on,
and images of, his specimen, Felix Lorenz and Emilio Power for sharing
helpful insights, and Bill Frank for image-editing.

Anon. 1975. Cypraea capensis. Of Sea and Shore 5(4): 165 incl. 3 figs.
Winter, 1974-75.

Anon. 1985. What’s wrong with these photos? Hawaiian Shell News
33(4): 4. April.

Ancey, C.-F. 1906. Mollusques gasteropodes senestres de l’epoque ac-
tuelle. Bulletin scientifique de la France et de la Belgique 40: 187-205.
Burgess, C.M. 1985. Cowries of the World. Seacomber Publications,
Cape Town. 1-289.

Dance, S. P. 1972. Abnormal sinistrality in marine gastropod shells. La
Conchiglia 4 (36): 13. Feb.

Dautzenberg, P. 1914. XXIme assemblee generate annuelle (presiden¬
tial address). Bulletin du Societe Zoologique de la France 34: 50-60.
de Bruin, B. 1994. Luponia fuscorubra (Shaw, 1909) common species,
yet rare. World Shells 11: 39-41 incl. figs 1-7; 4 figs outside and inside
front cover. Dec.

Fischer, P. & E.-L. Bouvier, 1892. Recherches et considerations sur
l’asymetrie des mollusques univalves. Journal de Conchyliologie 40:

9-207 + 3 pis.

Griffiths, R.J. 1962. Memoirs of the Natural History Museum of Mel¬
bourne 25: 217 [not seen; citation lifted from Schilder, 1964],

Hendricks, J.R. 2009. Sinistral snail shells in the sea: developmental
causes and consequences. Lethaia 42(1): 55-66. March.

Hoeblich, P. 1986. Do sinistral cowries die young? Hawaiian Shell News
33(2): 10. Feb.

Jearey, M. 2000. Southern Hemisphere sinistrals. Shell-O-Gram 41(3):
5-6. May-June. Also posted at <http://home.sprynet.com/~wfrank/jearey.
htm>.

Litved, W.R. 1989. Cowries and their relatives of Southern Africa. Gor¬
don Verhoef, Seacomber Publications, Cape Town. 1-208.

Lorenz, F. 22 March 2009. My favorite sinistral cowrie Muracy-
praea mus, live taken gem .<http://cowryforum.bboard.de/board/ftopic-
41123903nx25725-170.html>. Last accessed 19 July, 2010.

Pelseneer, P. 1920. Les variations et leur heredite chez les mollusques.
Memoires Acad. Roy ale de Belgique Deuxieme serie Tom. V: 1-826. Dec.
Pisor, D.L. [edited by D.L. Pisor and G.T. Poppe] 2008. Registry of
world record size shells Fifth edition. Pisor Marine Enterprise, San Diego,
CAand Conchbooks, Hackenheim Germany. l-[208], March.

[Raybaudi, L.], 1986. Gemme del Mare auction sales. The Connoisseur
of Shells 12: 29-40. Dec.

Raybaudi, L. 1987. Sinistrism in Cypraeidae. The Connoisseur of Shells
15/16: 56 + 6 figs. [57].June-Aug.

Raybaudi, L. 1992. News news news news. World Shells 2: 63; 4 figs,
outside back cover. Sept.

Raybaudi, L. 1994. Live collected Dead Collected. World Shells 11:
inside front cover. Dec.

Schilder, F.A. 1964. Do sinistral cowries exist? Hawaiian Shell News
12(6): 2. April.

Sykes, E. R. 1905. Presidential address. Variation in Recent Mollusca.
Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London 6: 253-271.

Wilson, B.R. 1985. Direct development in Southern Australian cowries
(Gastropoda: Cypraeidae). Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater
Research 36(2) 267 - 280.

Wilson, B.R., 1998 in Beesley, P.L., G.J.B. Ross & A. Wells (eds), 1998.

Mollusca: the southern synthesis. Fauna of Australia. Vol 5. CSIRO Pub¬
lishing, Melbourne. Part B. vii + pp. 565-1234. [Cypraeoidea: 780-786],

Harry G. Lee
shells@hglee.com

Page 10

Vol. 38, No. 3

A geographic extension for two species of Favartia
(Muricidae: Muricopsinae) from the western Atlantic

Emilio Fabian Garcia

While reviewing western Atlantic species of the genus
Favartia in my collection, I realized I had failed to report two
records of Favartia nucea (Morch, 1850) from the Gulf of Mexico
in earlier publications (Garcia, 2007; Garcia & Lee, 2002, 2003,
2004; Rosenberg et al, 2009). In the Gulf of Mexico, F. nucea
has only been reported from west Florida; however, I have a
specimen that we dredged off Louisiana at 28° 06.975’N, 90°
58.150’W, in 92-89 meters (Figure 1) (EFG 23206). A second
specimen was dredged in Campeche Bay, southern Gulf of
Mexico, at 21°51.32 , N, 92°03.68’W, in 66-68 meters (Figure 2)
(EFG 26149). These specimens differ from the typical F. nucea of
the Caribbean in having more angular, less rounded shoulders and
more elevated varices. I have not seen examples of F. nucea from
west Florida. Ironically, although F. nucea has now been reported
from three quadrants in the Gulf of Mexico, it has not yet been
reported from the southeastern quadrant, the most obvious because
of its geographic location and habitats typical of those in which
the species is normally found. Mr. Frank Frumar, of Kirkwood,
Missouri, who has done extensive dredging around the Florida
Keys, has not collected the species there (pers. com.).

Also, while researching two unidentified Favartia
specimens I have had in my collection for a couple of decades,
another discovery occured. One of the specimens had been
collected off Pidgeon Point, Falmouth Harbour, Antigua, Lesser
Antilles, in 30 feet of water (Figure 3) (EFG11683). I collected
the second specimen while snorkeling in 4 feet of water SW of
Bani, southern Dominican Republic (Figure 4) (EFG 7853). This
second specimen was collected alive on top of a living Lucina
pensylvanica (Linnaeus, 1758) (EFG 7854), presumably getting
ready to feed on it. I catalogued the two lots back then as Favartia
sp. for the former and F. sp. aff. nucea for the latter.

Trying to figure out what they were, I first went to
Malacolog, that indispensable research website created by Dr.
Gary Rosenberg (2009) at the Academy of Natural Sciences
of Philadelphia. I was looking for publications describing new
Favartia spp. from the western Atlantic. There I found a paper
by Roland Houart published in Novapex , another important
publication at the cutting edge of malacological taxonomy,
describing a new species of Favartia from Brazil. Since I do
subscribe to the magazine and have a database for everything in
my library (I use FileMaker Pro), it was easy for me to retrieve the
paper in question. The new Brazilian species described in Novapex
had been named Favartia coltrorum , for Jose and Marcus Coltro,
the well-known and respected owners of the shell dealership
Femorale. Its description and photos matched my specimens from
Antigua and the Dominican Republic. The species is similar to
Favartia nucea , F. cellulosa (Conrad, 1846), F. lindae Petuch,
1987, and F. pacei Petuch, 1988; however, it differs from them,
among other characters, by having broader, higher, smoother, and
fewer varices in the last teleoconch whorl (four, instead of five or

six, as in the case of the other species) (Houart, 2005:44).

Although all of the type material comes from Brazil, the
author has in his collection two specimens from Guadeloupe. They
were the only reported records outside of Brazil. The new findings
extend the geographic distribution for the species from roughly
16°2LN to 18°16’N, and from 61°37’W to 71°19’W. Since this
taxon is not widely known, one can speculate that, with a second
report of the species from the Lesser Antilles and its appearance
in the Greater Antilles, there should be other specimens of F.
coltrorum Houart, 2005, from those areas in collectors’ cabinets,
perhaps half-forgotten like mine were, hidden behind spurious
names.

Before starting this article I sent images of all four specimens
to Mr. Roland Houart, the well-known muricid researcher. Mr.
Houart, whom I thank herewith, confirmed my findings, with the
caveat (that I share) of the differences between the Louisiana and
Campeche F. nucea and those found elsewhere.

REFERENCES

Garda, E. F. 2007. Report on mollusks collected in a dredging
expedition to Bahia de Campeche,southwestern Gulf of Mexico. American
Conchologist 35(2)4-11.

Garda, E. F. & H. G. Lee. 2002. Report on molluscan species found
in the offshore waters of Louisiana, including many extensions of known
range and un-named species. American Conchologist 30(4): 10-13.

_. 2003. Report on molluscan species found in the offshore waters

of Louisiana, including many extensions of known range and un-named
species. II. American Conchologist 31(l):26-29.

_. 2004. Report on the malacofauna of offshore Louisiana waters-

including many range extensions and un-named species. III. American
Conchologist 32(3): 21-24.

Houart, R. 2005. Description of a new species of Favartia (Gastropoda:
Muricidae: Muricopsinae) from Brazil. Novapex 6: 41-44.

Rosenberg, G. 2009. Malacolog 4.1.1: A Database of Western Atlantic
Marine Mollusca. [WWW database (version 4.1.1)] URL http://www.
malacolog.org/.

Rosenberg, G., F. Moretzsohn, & E. Garcia. 2009. Gastropoda
(Mollusca) of the Gulf of Mexico. In: Gulf of Mexico: Its Origins, Waters,
and Biota.I, Biodiversity. D. L. Felder & D. K. Camp, eds, Texas A & M
University Press, pp. 579-699.

Emilio Fabian Garcia
115 Oak Crest Dr.

Lafayette, LA 70503, USA
Efg2112@louisiana. edu

September 2010

American Conchologist

Page 11

2

Favdrfra nucea (March, 1850)
21*51.32% 92*03*68^
Campeche Bay, Mexico 13.1 mm

Tavartia nucea (March, 1850)
2 8° 06.975'ISI, 90° 58.1 50’W
Off Louisiana 1 7 J mm

Tavartia coltrcrum Houart, 2005
Pidgeon Pt. t Falmouth Harbor
Antigua 11.5 mm

Tavartia cpltrurum Houart, 2005
SW of Bani, Dominican Republic
1 6.3 mm

Page 12

Vol. 38, No. 3

u a< “ - F, DVVAK1) O. W11 SON

978-156512-

SOUND

Snail

eating

Elisabeth tova Bailey

The Sound of a Wild
Snail Eating

by Elizabeth Tova Bailey, illustrations
by Kathy Bray, 2010, Algonquin Books
of Chapel Hill, NC, 191 pages, price
approx. $18.95, ISBN:

606-0

This small book (less than 200 pages double¬
spaced and only 5.5 x 7.5 inches) is truly a gem. It has an
inner sparkle and brilliance that make it worthy of giving
to a close friend, even if that friend is not interested in
sea shells, land snails, or conchology. I would have
thought that most readers of this magazine would not
find themselves learning new secrets about land snails
by reading this book, but a collector friend to whom I
lent the book remarked that she had not realized land
snails could have such complex living habits. There is
some interesting natural history of land snails presented
here, but this is not why you should read this book. The
reason to read this book is stated in a quote on the front
cover of the book from a review by the renowned Edward
O. Wilson, who states, “Beautiful!” When a renowned
biologist, researcher, lecturer, theorist, and author (two
Pulitzer Prizes), like E.O. Wilson makes such a statement,
anything I add would seem to be rather superfluous, but
for those who might want a bit more detail, please read
on.

“The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating” is a true
story about the author’s experiences dealing with a
debilitating chronic illness that struck rapidly and
unexpectedly and in a short period of time confined her
to bed, hardly able to move. A friend brought her a small
potted plant with a brown land snail (you don’t leam the species
until the end of the book) that had taken up residence in the pot.
Instead of detailing her battle with, what was for the most part
an unknown and undoubtedly terrifying disease, Elizabeth Bailey
provides the reader with in-depth observations of the life of this
snail over the course of a year. A professional malacologist friend
noted that her science is “spot on.” We are allowed to follow
the author on a journey of discovery, made intimate because of
her condition. A condition that is only a blurred background in
the book, gradually brought into focus by the narrative about the
snail’s life and activities, and the author’s rather detailed study into
the biology and natural history of land snails.

Elizabeth Bailey fought her illness for two decades
before finally beating it. The exact cause of the illness was never
established, though various pathogens were suggested by various
medical authorities. Her snail observations occupied one year of
this time period, but her continued research involved several years.
Because of this, she is able to provide quotes and paraphrasing from
authors as varied as Edgar Allen Poe and T. H. Huxley, or Charles
Darwin and Emily Dickenson, or Robert Cowie and Richard
Dawkins. These authors (with the exception of Robert Cowie, a

malacologist at the University of Hawaii) are certainly not where
most of us would turn for information on land snails, but you may
be surprised. Understandably, the selected bibliography included
is eclectic. Perhaps my favorite quote is, “Every single species of
the animal kingdom challenges us with all.. .the mysteries of life.”
(Karl Von Frisch, 1962, “A Biologist Remembers,” translated
from the original German by L. Gombrich, Oxford, 1967) This
certainly fits this book where the reader is gracefully brought to an
intimate examination of the mystery of life as evidenced by a small
land snail as well as the larger personage of the author.

This book is a warm and rich celebration of life - all
available in an afternoon’s reading. Of the many ways to spend
a couple of hours in the afternoon or evening, I cannot think of
many more pleasant and rewarding than Elizabeth Bailey’s book.
You will find yourself smiling often and finish with a feeling of
satisfaction. Oh, and as for the identity of the snail, I am afraid you
will have to read the book.

Thomas E. Eichhorst

thomas @nerite. com

September 2010

American Conchologist

Page 13

Encyclopedia of Texas
Seashells

by John W. Tunnell, Jr., Jean Andrews,

Noe C. Barrera, & Fabio Moretzsohn,

2010, Texas A&M University Press,
College Station, Texas, 512 pages,
price approx. $50.00, ISBN-13: 978-1-
60344-141-4, ISBN-10: 1-60344-141-7

At a reception in Texas in 1971 to honor the
publication of “Sea Shells of the Texas Coast” by the
late Jean Andrews (see p. 29 of American Conchologist
vol. 38, no. 1, March 2010), she commented on a
statement about a probable “Son of Sea Shells of the
Texas Coast” (later written by Jean in 1977 as an update
of her original book, titled Shells and Shores of Texas)
that there would someday be need for a “Grandson of
Sea Shells of the Texas Coast ” The “Encyclopedia of
Texas Seashells” is that book. It is, in fact, quite a bit
more than “grandson” of those volumes from decades
ago. It is larger in content (512 pages), number of
species (900 with micro and deep water now covered),
biotypes covered (various coastal habitats to deep ocean
depths), and it combines the coverage of these areas in
some particularly useful ways. There are two additional
authors not listed on the title page that were brought in
for their expertise. Kim Withers penned chapter one,
titled “Shells in Texas Coastal History” and David W.

Hicks wrote chapter three, titled “Molluscan Ecology
and Habitats.” Many other experts, both amateur and
professional, were consulted in preparation of this tome, and most
readers will recognize a number of the names included in the
“Acknowledgements” section (lots of COA members, shell clubs,
and various professional organizations). One such contributor was
Roe Davenport (1939 - 2005) who provided the initial inspiration
and push to accomplish this rather daunting project. The
“Encyclopedia of Texas Seashels” is dedicated to Roe Davenport.

The “Encyclopedia of Texas Seashells” will likely be
used most often as an identification guide, and for this it is aptly
suited. Only a truly dedicated researcher of the Gulf regions
(Emilio Garcia comes to mind) is likely to turn up a seashell not
covered by this book. For most of us this book can well serve as
the Gulf Coast seashell Bible. As an identification aide, there are
several well thought out and well displayed features. Each species
is displayed in clear color photographs that most often include
both dorsal and ventral displays and, where needed for clarity,
there are magnified views of important shell structures. Species
are listed systematically by class and family (with these entries
containing descriptive text of the order or family as a whole), then
alphabetically by genus and species. Each listing has the scientific
name and where applicable the common name. The text for each
species includes: “distribution” (including areas outside of Texas),
“size” (typical adult size), “description” (color, structure, and any
key identification aids), “habitat” (type of habitat and typical depth

of occurrence), “remarks” (areas of occurrence, bibliographical
references, occasionally notes on junior synonymy), and the
final entry (not always present) is “synonym” (known synonyms
provided). A few images are pencil drawings when no shell was
available. The images are about 2 inches or more in height and
are of a sufficient quality that they can be magnified by the reader
for a closer look at shell details. The quality of the images is truly
superb. A 1mm Turbonilla fonteini Jong & Coomans, 1988 is
displayed with remarkable clarity and detail, including a magnified
view of the protoconch. Finally, if the species in question is from
deep water, this is noted in bold just below the common name.

Species accounts are approximately 3/5 of the content of
the book. The other 2/5 is made up of some nice-to-have features,
some interesting history and biology, an unusual appendix, and the
standard index, glossary, and references.

Chapter one by Kim Withers is “Shells in Texas Coastal
History.” The chapter begins with the geologic history of Texas
coasts beginning in the Pleistocene about 18,000 years ago
and discusses coastal formation, the shells involved in coastal
formation, and early archaic use of shells in what was to become
Texas. This is followed by explanations of more recent use of Texas
shells as decoration, food, and construction material. The chapter
is heavily illustrated with some very interesting photographs.

The second chapter, “Chronology of Marine Malacology

Page 14

Vol. 38, No. 3

in Texas,” by the primary authors, is a “Who’s Who” of Texas
malacologists as well as entries about the formation of different
Texas shell clubs. Some biographical detail is provided for selected
authors and institutions. Graph representations are included for
species described per author, per year, and cumulatively over time.

The third chapter is a hidden gem in this book. Titled
“Molluscan Ecology and Habitats,” it is written by David W.
Hicks and provides fascinating coverage of the various biotypes
or habitats found along and off the Texas coast. He details the
characteristics of different bays and estuaries and how they were
formed. After a short discussion of why different mollusks are
found where they are found, he details the different molluscan
habitats found in Texas and what can be found in each one as well
as why the habitat has the fauna it has. Nine different habitats
are discussed in depth and color plates are provided of both the
habitat and the typical fauna found in each one. These vary from
“mangrove habitats” with three habitat photos and a color plate
with an assemblage of five mollusk species common to this habitat,
to “sandy beach habitats” with eight habitat images and a color
plate with a 21 species assemblage, to the Stetson Bank habit with
eight habitat images and two color plates with an assemblage of
53 species illustrated. Of course, all of these species are illustrated
in the “species accounts” section, but here are grouped the most
commonly encountered species in each of nine biotypes.

Chapter four is a short guide to collecting, trading,
buying, cleaning, and curating seashells. Chapter five is “General
Features of Mollusks” and is one of the better attempts I have
encountered at describing the physical characters of each class.
The color images labeling the various parts of a shell (whether
chiton, bivalve, gastropod, or scaphopod) are the clearest and
easiest to understand I have seen.

Chapter six is the “species accounts,” already discussed.
Following this is the appendix. This is a classification and
checklist of the species covered in the book. It is systematically
arranged and presents scientific name, common name, shell size,
habitat, and depth of occurrence. This listing does not really
provide any information not available in the species accounts, but
it is a nice quick reference listing of genera and species within each
family. After the appendix is a rather thorough glossary, a list of
references, and the index.

And that is Jean Andrews’s “Grandson of Sea Shells
of the Texas Coast.” A valuable reference tool that needs to be
in anyone’s library if they collect or research Texas and Gulf of
Mexico seashells. Like any book of this size, there are bound to
be errors (see the sidebar), but overall it is a monumental work
that was well done. Finally a word or two about reading this book.
Some readers will undoubtedly leaf through the book once or twice
and then sit it on a shelf with other seldom referenced volumes.
Others will use it occasionally to confirm species identifications
or to find the correct spelling of certain shell names, but again it
will sit mostly unread. I ask that when you buy this book, and
many of you will, you actually sit down and read through the early
chapters. There is a lot of well presented information that I believe
many readers will enjoy. Certainly some sections will bog down
a bit in detail, but just skim ahead a bit and you are certain to find
more interesting and maybe intriguing facets of Texas seashells.

Thomas E.Eichhorst

thomas@nerite.com

As I stated in the review, I believe the “Encyclopedia
of Texas Seashells” is a valuable “need-to-have”
reference that belongs in any sheller’s (professional
or amateur) library. That being said, a work of
this magnitude always has a few errors. While the
authors did what they could to eliminate errors,
a few always creep in. There are a couple that
should be noted. On page 228 there is a color plate
showing three Vexillum specimens. All three are
identified as variations of V pulchellum (Reeve,
1844), but according to Emilio Garcia, shell
number three, a shell he loaned to the authors for
illustration purposes, is actually V arestum (Rehder,
1943). It was so identified at the time by Emilio, but
somehow things got crossed up. The authors list the
aresterum name as a synonym under the originally
assigned genus Pusiolina. Emilio also points out
that the size of 106mm given for Mitra antillensis
Dali, 1889, a deep water species, is not correct for
this species in the Gulf. In the Gulf the shells are
seldom more than 35mm in length; the larger size is
for this species when taken elsewhere, such as off
the east coast of Florida or North Carolina. Emilio
believes there are probably two distinct species
involved here. On page 175, Cleotrivia candidula
(Gaskoin, 1836) is probably Dolichupis leei Fehse
& Grego, 2010 (newly described in Visaya vol. 11,
no. 6). Other corrections will hopefully (according
to one of the authors) be printed online as needed.

--

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September 2010

American Conchologist

Page 15

Sydney Shell Club Shell Show
24 October 2009

The annual Sydney Shell Club
Shell Show was held on 24 October 2009.

As in previous years it was a popular and
well-attended event. This year’s winner of
the COA Award was Trevor Appleton for
his display of five cases of seashells titled
“Variation Within a Species - Volutidae.”

His display showcased the rich variety,
especially of color and pattern, found in
this fascinating family. Trevor’s cases took
up about three linear meters, out of a total
of 30 meters for the shell show displays.

The “Sydney Shell Club” (The
Malacological Society of Australasia -
NSW Branch) meets on the 4th Saturday of each month at the
Ryde Eastwood Leagues Club, Ryedale Road, West Ryde (a
suburburd of Sydney), New South Wales, Australia. Meetings
commence at 2.00 p.m. Annual membership fee is $40 for adults,
$25 for students or pensioners (looks like a break for many
COA members!), $15 for juniors, and $5 for additional family
members. Membership includes the Sydney Sheller News Letter
and Australian postage (overseas is extra). Research support is
provided to students of Malacology of all ages via the Mollusc
Research Awards. Contact for the club is the president, Steve
Dean, at: president@sydneyshellclub.net

The Keppel Shell Club Show
10-11 July 2010

The
2010 Keppel Bay
Shell Show was
held in Yeppoon,
Australia. This
year’s show was
well attended
despite a late
change of locality
bit of
weather,
originally
venue
Yeppoon
Hall was

and a
wet
The

planned
at the
Town

unavailable, so the
show was moved
to the somewhat
smaller, but

readily available
“cafeteria” at the
Yeppoon Show
Grounds (thanks to the Yeppoon
Show Society). As it turned out,
this facility had more accessible
parking and was quite workable.

At the end of two days we had
lots of smiles from attendees,
exhibitors, shell club members, and
shell dealers. Lots of hard work
by many people assured another
successful show.

This year’s COA Award

went to Heather Smith who traveled from New Zealand to present
her display, “Conchology and Philately,” a very colorful display of
stamps with shell images and the matching shells. Heather’s other
displays also did quite well. She won the Nancy Plumb Memorial
Trophy (Pectens
<50mm), the

Ozzie Rippingale
Memorial Trophy
( M u r i c i d a e ,

<60mm), the Stella
Mackay Memorial
Trophy ((land
snails, <50mm),
the Kev Phelps
Memorial Trophy
(colorful shells),

and the Loma__

& Ivan Marrow
Trophy (conchology
& philately).

Page 16

Vol. 38, No. 3

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September 2010

American Conchologist

Page 17

A magazine dedicat’d to the study of shells.

Edited by the Belgian Society for Conehology,
organizers of the Belgian Shellshow

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ith an emchasis on the Australasian. Indo-West Pacific and South

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» ecology * research with conservation or economic significance

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Research

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Molluscan Research welcomes the submission of
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American Conchologist

Page 19

New generic assignments for Strombidae:
A summary of recent changes

by Winston A. Barney

Collectors have been drawn to the family
Strombidae for many years by its many beautiful
and showy species and their relative abundance and
ease of acquisition. One factor in their popularity,
especially for snorkelers and waders, is the
availability of many species in shallow water. In
addition, by monitoring the many dealers’ websites
and lists, a person may expect to locate and acquire
a nearly complete collection of species in a matter
of years - even if he or she never sets foot into the
water. A few species remain rare and are seldom
available on dealers’ lists, but most of them are
collectable with patience and diligent inquiries.

Since Abbott’s 1960 and 1961 monographs
regarding the Indo-Pacific genera Strombus and
Lambis, respectively, many changes have come
about in the taxonomy of the entire family. During
those almost fifty years, eight new genera have been
described and the remaining subgenera into which
Abbott grouped the species are now being treated as
full genera. Furthermore, a handful of species and
subspecies have been newly described or elevated,
as well as a few new forms. This intense taxonomic
activity has created a multigeneric arrangement that
more accurately classifies the species.

In spite of all of this activity, many
collectors and most sea shell dealers still adhere
to Abbott’s concept of the genus Strombus. The
reasons are simple. Casual collectors have to
remember only one genus, and dealers, who
understandably bow to the collectors, don’t have
to split hairs or raise hackles by listing the multi¬
genera nomenclature. The same situation exists in
the families Cypraeidae, Conidae, and Muricidae.

Malacologists and specialists in the family
Strombidae have been busily reporting the growing
body of taxonomic changes, but much of the work is
published in European periodicals which reach few
American collectors. In 2002, Kronenberg & Vermeij reported,
“challenges to Abbott’s taxa,” and held that, “Abbott...was
typically vague about the characters that distinguish higher taxa,
with the result that the lines among his subgenera of Strombus are
blurred and arbitrary.”

Klaus Bandel (2007) stated, “The genus Strombus has
been differentiated into a number of subgenera which have been
regarded to represent genera by different authors.” And in 2009,
Kronenberg, Liverani, and Dekker stated, “...it has been advocated
to consider the strombid taxa employed as subgenera by Abbott
(1960) as full genera...” Likewise, the subgenera of Lambis , as
described by Abbott in 1961, are now recognized as full genera.
The genus Tibia is now placed in the family Rostellariidae and the

genus Terebellum is now in the family Seraphidae.

Finally, the phylogenetic studies of Latiolais (2003),
Simone (2005) and Latiolais, Taylor, Roy, and Hellberg (2006)
have pointed out previously unrecognized morphological
relationships that give credence to new groupings within the
entire family. Others are now suggesting that the genus Lambis
originated within the genus Strombus , constituting a sister clade to
Sinustrombus taurus and S. sinuatus.

A great deal of credit must be given to those workers
who have poured over early manuscripts and hunted down type
specimens in order to verify facts and update the nomenclature.
They do the work. We enjoy the fruits of their labors. Their
names can be found in the list of recent literature at the end of

Page 20

Vol. 38, No. 3

this article. We thank them for their taxonomic expertise and
quest for accuracy. We should also give credit to those who invest
their time and riches into phylogenetic analyses that search back
through ages before the birth of conchology to uncover the true
relationships of our treasures.

In using this multi-genera version of the family, the
reader should note the changes in spelling of the species which are
necessary to agree with the gender of the genus. Attention should
also be given to the correct usage of parentheses in the author
citation, showing that a change of genus has occurred since the
original description.

Checklist of genera in the family
STROMBIDAE

Conventions:

1. The genera are listed chronologically by description dates.

2. The species are listed chronologically by description dates,
except that the first species listed in each genus is the type of
that genus.

3. Subspecies are indented.

4. Although various forms of species are undeniable, most
forms have been omitted from this list. Hybrids , although a
number have been identified, are also omitted.

Genus STROMBUS Linnaeus, 1758

Strombus pugilis pugilis Linnaeus, 1758
Strombus pugilis worki Petuch, 1994
Strombus alatus Gmelin, 1791
Strombus gracilior Sowerby, 1825

Genus LAMBIS Roding, 1798

Lambis lambis (Linnaeus, 1758)

Lambis truncata truncata (Lightfoot, 1786)

Lambis truncata sebae (Kiener, 1843)

Lambis crocata crocata (Link, 1807)

Lambis crocata pilsbryi Abbott, 1961

Genus CANARIUM Schumacher, 1817

Canarium urceum urceum (Linnaeus, 1758)

Canarium urceum incisum (Wood, 1828)

Canarium urceum orrae (Abbott, 1960)

Canarium labiatum labiatum (Roding, 1798)

Canarium labiatum olydium (Duclos, 1844)

Canarium erythrinum (Dillwyn, 1817)

Canarium mutabile (Swainson, 1821)

Canarium rugosum (Sowerby, 1825)

Canarium scalariforme (Duclos, 1833) [According to
Kronenberg, this name should have priority over the
name Canarium haemastoma (Sowerby, 1842)]
Canarium maculatum (Sowerby, 1842)

Canarium fusiforme (Sowerby, 1842)

Canarium belli (Kiener, 1843)

Canarium microurceum Kira, 1959
Canarium ochroglottis (Abbott, 1960)

Canarium klineorum (Abbott, 1960)

Canarium wilsonorum (Abbott, 1967)

Canarium betuleti (Kronenberg, 1991)

Genus HARPAGO Morch, 1852

Harpago chiragra chiragra (Linnaeus, 1758) [Harpago

chiragra rugosa (Sowerby, 1851) is

actually the male form of this species]

Harpago chiragra arthritica (Roding, 1798)

Genus MLLLEPES Morch, 1852

Millepes millepeda (Linnaeus, 1758)

Millepes digitata (Perry, 1811)

Millepes scorpius scorpius (Linnaeus, 1758)

Millepes scorpius indomaris (Abbott, 1961)
Millepes robusta (Swainson, 1821)

Millepes violacea (Swainson, 1821)

Millepes arachnoides (Shikama, 1971)

Genus EUPROTOMUS Gill, 1870

Euprotomus aurisdianae (Linnaeus, 1758)

Euprotomus aratrum (Roding, 1798)

Euprotomus bulla (Roding, 1798)

Euprotomus vomer (Roding, 1798)

Euprotomus hawaiensis (Pilsbry, 1917)

Euprotomus chrysostomus (Kuroda, 1942)

Euprotomus iredalei (Abbott, 1960)

Euprotomus aurora Kronenberg, 2002

Genus CONOMUREX Fischer, 1884

Conomurex luhuanus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Conomurex fasciatus (Born, 1778)

Conomurex coniformis (Sowerby, 1842)

Conomurex decorus (Roding, 1798)

Conomurexpersicus (Swainson, 1821)

Genus GIBBER UL US .1 o u ssea u m e, 1886

Gibber ulus gibber ulus gibberulus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Gibberulus gibberulus gibbosus (Roding, 1798)
Gibberulus gibberulus albus (Morch, 1850)

Genus LENTIGO Jousseaume, 1886

Lentigo lentiginosus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Lentigo pipus (Roding, 1798)

Genus TRLCORNLS Jousseaume, 1886
Tricornis tricornis (Lightfoot, 1786)

Tricornis oldi (Emerson, 1965)

Genus LOBATUS Iredale, 1921
Lobatus raninus (Gmelin, 1791)

Lobatus gigas (Linnaeus, 1758)

Lobatus galius (Linnaeus, 1758)

Lobatus costatus (Gmelin, 1791)

Lobatus goliath (Schroter, 1805)

Lobatusperuvianus (Swainson, 1823)

Lobatus galeatus (Swainson, 1823)

Genus LABLOSTROMBUS Oostingh, 1925
Labiostrombus epidromis (Linnaeus, 1758)

September 2010

American Conchologist

Page 21

Genus DOLOMENA Iredale, 1931
Dolomenapuchella (Reeve, 1851)

Dolomena plicata (Roding, 1798)

Dolomena variabilis (Swainson, 1821)

Dolomena dilatata (Swainson, 1821)

Dolomena columba (Lamarck, 1822)

Dolomena labiosa (Wood, 1828)

Dolomena sibbaldi (Sowerby, 1842)

Dolomena athenia (Duclos, 1844)

Dolomena swainsoni (Reeve, 1850)

Dolomena hickeyi (Willan, 2000)

Genus DOXANDER Iredale, 1931

Doxander vittatus vittatus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Doxander vittatus apicatus (Man in’t Veld & Visser,
1993)

Doxander vittatus entropi (Man in’t Veld & Visser,
1993)

Doxander campbelli (Griffith & Pidgeon, 1834)
Doxander japonicus (Reeve, 1851)

Genus VARICOSPIRA Eames, 1952

Varicospira cancellata (Lamarck, 1816)

Varicospira crispata (Sowerby, 1842)

Varicospira tyleri (H & A Adams, 1864)

Varicospira kooli Moolenbeek & Dekker, 2007

Genus LAEVISTROMBUS Abbott, 1960

Laevistrombus canarium (Linnaeus, 1758)
Laevistrombus turturella (Roding, 1798)

Laevistrombus guidoi Man in’t Veld & De Turck, 1998

Genus MIRABILISTROMBUS Kronenberg, 1999
Mirabilistrombus listen (Gray, 1852)

Genus TERESTROMBUS Kronenberg & Vermeij, 2002
Terestrombus fragilis (Roding, 1798)

Terestrombus terebellatus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Terestrombus afrobellatus (Abbott, 1960)

Genus TRIDENTARIUS Kronenberg & Vermeij, 2002
Tridentarius dentatus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Genus MARGISTROMBUS Bandel, 2007

Margistrombus marginata (Linnaeus, 1758)
Margistrombus succincta (Linnaeus, 1767)
Margistrombus septima (Duclos, 1834)

Margistrombus sowerbyorum (Visser & Man In’t Veld,
2005)

Genus MINISTROMBUS Bandel, 2007

Ministrombus minimus (Linnaeus, 1771)

Genus PERSISTISTROMBUS Kronenberg & Lee 2007
Persististrombus granulatus (Swainson, 1821)
Persististrombus latus (Gmelin, 1791)

Genus SINUSTROMBUS Bandel, 2007
Sinustrombus taurus (Roding, 1798)

Sinustrombus sinuatus (Lightfoot, 1786)

Sinustrombus latissimus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Genus THERSISTROMBUS Bandel, 2007
Thersistrombus thersites (Swainson, 1823)

Genus BARNEYS TROMBUS Blackwood, 2009

Barneystrombus kleckhamae (Cernohorsky, 1971)

Barneystrombus boholensis (Miihlhausser, 1981)

Recent Literature

Abbott, R. Tucker. 1960. The genus Strombus in the Indo-Pacific, Indo-
Pacific Mollusca 1(2):33-146.

Abbott, R. Tucker. 1961. The genus Lambis in the Indo-Pacific, Indo-
Pacific Mollusca 1(3): 147-174.

Abbott, R. Tucker. 1967. Strombus (Canarium) wilsoni new species
from the Indo-Pacific, Indo-Pacific Mollusca l(7):455-456.

Bandel, Klaus. 2007. About the larval shell of some Stromboidea,
connected to a review of the classification and phylogeny of the
Strombimorpha (Caenogastropoda), Freiberger Forschungshefte C 524
psf (15):97-206.

Bernard, P. A. 1984. Coquillages du Gabon [Shells of Gabon],
Libreville, Pierre Bernard, 140 pp.

Blackwood, Tim. 2009. Barney strombus, a new genus of Strombidae
(Gastropoda) from the Indo-West pacific, with discussions of included
taxa and the general morphology of their shells, Visaya 2(5): 11-16.

Caro, Oliver, n.d. Strombidae Pictures,

http://www.idscaro.net/sci/01_coll/plates/gastro/pl_strombidae_l.

htm#acana

Cernohorsky, Walter. 1971. New molluscan species of Strombus
(Strombidae) and Concilia (Mitridae) from New Britain and Taiwan,
Records of the Auckland Institute and Museum 8:131-135.

Coltro, Jose and Coltro, Marcus, n.d. Femorale, http://www.femorale.
com.br/shellphotos/

Dekker, Henk. 1996. Strombus orchroglottis betuleti Kronenberg, 1991
in Thailand (Gastropoda: Strombidae), Vita Marina 44(1-2): 19.
Dekkers,AartM. 2008. Revision of the family Strombidae (Gastropoda)
at the supra-specific level, Part 1. De Kreukel 44(3-4):35-64.

DeTurck, K., Kreipl, K., Man in’t Veld, L. M., and Poppe, G. T.
1999. In The Family Strombidae: Poppe, G. T. and Groh, K. (dir.), A
ConchologicalIconography, ConchBooks, Hackenheim, 60 pp., 130 pis.
Emerson, William K 1965. Strombus ( Tricornis ) oldi new species,
Indo-Pacific Mollusca l(6):397-398.

Frank, Bill. n.d. http://jaxshells.org/fams.htm (The Family Strombidae)

Frank, Bill. (Lee, Harry - ed.) n.d. Peanut Island Marine Mollusks,

http ://j axshells. org/peanut. htm

Goldberg, Richard, n.d. Worldwide Conchology,

http://www.worldwideconchology.com/fam/Strombidae.shtml

Hardy, Eddie, n.d. Hardy’s Internet Guide to Marine Gastropods, http://

gastropods.com/

Heiman, E. L. 2002. Shells of East Sinai, an illustrated list: Strombidae,
Triton 6:12-14.

Heiman, E. L. 2003. A list of Strombidae of East Sinai, Triton 7:
supplement #2.

Kronenberg, C. G. 1991. Strombus (Canarium) ochroglottis betuleti,
a new subspecies from Sri Lanka with a short note on the distribution of
S.(C) mutabilis Swainson, 1821, Gloria Maris 30(4):53-58.
Kronenberg, G. C. 1993. On the identity of Lambis wheelwrighti Greene,
1978 and I. arachnoides Shikama, 1971, Vita Marina 42(2): 41-56.
Kronenberg, G. C. 1998. Revision of Euprotomus Gill, 1870. 1. The
systematic position of Strombus listen Gray, 1852, Vita Marina 45(3-
4): 1-6.

Page 22

Vol. 38, No. 3

Kronenberg, G. C. 1999. Revision of Euprotomus Gill, 1870. 2. On the
identity of Strombus hirasei Kuroda, 1942, The Festivus 31(6):63-67.
Kronenberg, G. C. 2002. Addendum to a revision of Euprotomus Gill,
1870. 2. On the identity of Strombus hirasei Kuroda, 1942, The Festivus
34(9): 110.

Kronenberg, G. C. 2002. Revision of Euprotomus Gill, 1870.
3. Description of Euprotomus aurora spec. nov. from the Indian
Ocean, Vita Malacologica 1:55-60.

Kronenberg, G. C. 2008. Strombidae, in G. T. Poppe, Philippine Marine
Mollusks, Mol. 1, Hackenheim: ConchBooks, 538-571.

Kronenberg, G. C. 2008. An intergeneric hybrid (Gastropoda:
Caenogastropoda: Strombidae) with remarks on the subdivision of Indo-
Pacific Tricornis, Basteria 72(4-6):331-343.

Kronenberg, G. C. 2008. Bom’s strombs (Mollusca: Gastropoda), with
some notes on Strombus succinctus Linnaeus, 1767, Ann. Naturhist. Mus.
Wien (109 B): 51-66.

Kronenberg, G. C. 2009. A note on Bandel’s 2007 review of the
classification and phylogeny of the Strombidae (Caenogastropoda),
Basteria 73(1-3): 65-67.

Kronenberg, G. C. and Berkhout, J 1984. Strombidae, Vita Marina
31(l-6):263-362, pis. 1-9.

Kronenberg, G. C. and Dekker, H. 2000. A nomenclatural note on
Strombus wilsoni Abbott, 1967, and Strombus wilsonorum Petuch, 1994,
with the introduction of Strombus praeraninus nom. nov. (Gastropoda,
Strombidae), Basteria 64:5-6.

Kronenberg, G. C. and Dharma, B. 2005. New distributional records
for four species of Stromboidea (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from Australasia,
The Beagle , Records of the Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern
Territory 21:47-51.

Kronenberg, G. C. and Lee, H. 2007. Genera of American Strombid
Gastropods (Gastropoda: Strombidae) and remarks on their phylogeny,
The Veliger 49(4):256-264.

Kronenberg, G. C., Liverani, V. and Dekker, H. 2009. On the identity
of Strombus coniformis Sowerby II, 1842 (Gastropoda: Strombidae) with
additional notes on its distribution, Journal of Conchology 39(6):659-668.
Kronenberg, G. C. and Vermeij, G J. 2002. Terestrombus and
Tridentarius, new genera of Indo-Pacific Strombidae (Gastropoda), with
comments on included taxa and on shell characters in Strombidae, Vita
Malacologica 1:49-54.

Latiolais, J.M., Taylor, M.S., Roy, K., and Hellberg, M.E. 2006. A

molecular phylogenetic analysis of strombid gastropod morphological
diversity, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 41:436-444.

Landau, B. M., Kronenberg, G. C. and Herbert, G. S. 2008. A large
new species of Lobatus (Gastropoda: Strombidae) from the Neogene of
the Dominican Republic, with notes on the genus, The Veliger 50(1):31-
38.

Man in’t Veld, L. and Visser, G. J. 1993. A revision of the subgenus
Doxander Iredale, 1931, including a nomen novum for Srombus turritus
and the description of a new subspecies from the Philippines, Vita Marina
42(1): 11-32.

Man in’t Veld, L. and Visser, G. J. 1995. Contributions to the knowledge
of Strombacea, 2, Strombus ( Doxander ) vittatus entropi versus Strombus
sulcatus: a rectification, Vita Marina 43(1 -2J63-64.

Man in’t Veld, L. and De Turck, K. 1998. Contributions to the knowledge
of Strombacea, 6, A revision of the subgenus Laevistrombus Kira, 1955
including the description of a new species from the New Hebrides, Gloria
Maris 36(5-6):73-107.

Moolenbeek, R. G. and Dekker, H. 1993. On the identity of Strombus
decorus and Strombus persicus, with the description of Strombus decorus
masirensis n. ssp. and a note on Strombus fasciatus, Vita Marina 42(1):3-
10 .

Moscatelli, Renato. (translated by by Presada, William A.) 1987.

Superfamily Strombacea from Western Atlantic, Antonio A. Nano & Filho
Ltda., Sao Paulo, 97 pp., 38 pis.

Muhlhausser, H. 1981. Strombus kleckhamae boholensis n. subsp.,

Spixiana 4(3):319-324.

Muhlhausser, H. 1982 Strombus kleckhamae boholensis n. ssp.
(Gastropoda: Strombidae), La Conchiglia 14(156-157):3-4.

Natural History Museum of Rotterdam, n.d. Strombidae, http://www.
nmr-pics.nl/

Petuch, Edward J. 1993. Molluscan discoveries from the tropical
western Atlantic region, La Conchiglia 25(266):51-54.

Raven, Han. 2002. Notes on mollusks from NW Borneo. 1. Stomboidea
(Gastropoda, Strombidae, Rostellariidae, Seraphidae), Vila Malacologica
1:3-32.

Rosenberg, G. 2005. Malacolog 4.1.0: A Database of Western Atlantic
Marine Mollusca, http://www.malacolog.org/

Simone, Luiz. 2005. Comparative morphological study of representatives
of the three families of Stromboidea and the Xenophoroidea (Mollusca,
Caenogastropoda), with an assessment of their phylogeny, Arquivos de
Zoologia 37(2)141-267.

Visser, G. J.and Man In’t Veld, L. 2005. Contributions to the knowledge
of Strombacea. 7, Notes on the Strombus (Dolomena) marginatus complex
(Gastropoda: Strombidae) and the status of Strombus (Dolomena)
robustus Sowerby, 1874; with the description of a new subspecies, and
a neotype designation of Strombus (Dolomena) marginatus Linne, 1758,
Gloria Maris 44(3-4):55-68.

Walls, J. G. 1980. Conchs, Tibias and Harps , T.F.H. Publications,
Neptune, New Jersey, 191 pp.

Wieneke, Ulrich. 2009. http://www.stromboidea.de/?n=Species.
Strombidae

Willan, Richard C. 2000. Strombus hickeyi, a new species in the
subgenus Labiostrombus (Gastropoda: Strombidae) from the tropical
southwestern Pacific Ocean, Vita Marina 47(1): 18-24.

Willan, R. C. and Kronenberg, G. C. 2004. Rectification of nomenclature
for two species in the family Strombidae (Gastropoda), Basteria 67: 153-
157.

Wilson, Barry. 1993. Australian Marine Shells , Vol. 1, Odyssey,
Kallaroo, 408 pp.

Yamada, Machiko. n.d. BISYOGAI data base,

http ://shell. kwansei. ac .j p/~shell/pic_book/family/2500. html

I commend the gracious help provided by Tim Blackwood of Cohasset,
Minnesota, in preparing and proofreading this article. His passion for the
family Strombidae is tireless and his efforts are selfless.

Winston Barney
winstonbarney @charter. net

The large and the small in the Strombidae: Lobatus goliath at
13in and Canarium scalariforme at 13mm.

September 2010

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Page 23

Andrew Grebneff (1959 - 2010), shown above with a
squalodont fossil, worked at the University of Otago, Dept of
Geology, Dunedin, New Zealand, as a fossil preparator and
was an avid shell collector. He was especially interested in
Busycon, but in fact collected and showed an interest in most
molluscan families. Most of us knew him through Conch-L
and email contacts. Surprisingly, many of us formed a close
relationship with Andrew, even though never meeting face-to-
face. Someone who did meet Andrew face-to-face is Marcus
Coltro of Femorale. Marcus writes:

Andrew had an eclectic way to collect shells and
fossils - not from a specific group, but from all
families and classes. Although he wrote me for the
first time in 1996, our contacts were more frequent
after...we started exchanging innumerous e-mails
about shells. In 2005 I asked about the possibility
of visiting him in Dunedin to collect shells. At first
he said there were not many shells to collect but he
could arrange a dredging trip on a research boat. Not
necessary to say that our trip was very successful with
his help and after that our friendship got stronger.

His wife Kala and two children Karishma and Aden
were very nice on my first trip and even nicer on my
following trip in 2009 when I stayed at their home.

They did not complain a bit even after I cleaned
lots of stinking shells on their bathroom! I spent
several days collecting with him on both trips when
he took me to his secret collecting spots. He was
very sharp and intelligent, and was probably the best
professional on fossil preparation in New Zealand.

I am very proud to have met such nice guy and will
certainly miss his acid comments on Conch-L!

Andrew was always willing to offer his expertise on Recent or
fossil shells and there are quite a few collections that benefitted
from his largesse with shells he collected over the years. If he
knew someone was working on a specific molluscan family,
he often willingly offered to loan, trade, or give specimens
he thought might help that individual in his or her research.
Another passion of Andrew’s was VW busses - something he
took a bit of kidding about from some of us.

Robert C. “Bob” Dayle (1946 - 2010), shown above in
his favorite habitat, was “Mr. Hawaiian Cowrie,” publishing
numerous papers on evolution, species status, and variation
within and between cowrie species. Bob is perhaps best
known in the shell community for his development of one
of the best literature resources for Cypraeidae, the archive
site The Captured Cowry , available on the web at: http://
www.cowrys.org/capcowry/index.html This site is first of
all compilations and indices (by author, date, and species)
of every cowrie article published during the 50-year run of
Hawaiian Shell News. This comprehensive resource has
the added value that Bob corrected known errors in early
articles by providing the corrections in brackets. The site also
contains movies of living cowries, an index of Strombidae
articles in Hawaiian Shell News , and an index of E. A Kay’s
“Hawaiian Marine Shells.” Bob served several years in the
United States Navy (stationed in Spain, Alaska, Hawaii,
and Guam) and took up SCUBA while stationed in Hawaii.
He finished his US Naval service in Hawaii and took up
professional diving for a time. He then moved to Texas, spent
some time in Germany, and finally moved back to Hawaii in
1984 when he began diving and shell collecting in earnest.
By 1988 he began analyzing the specimens collected to try
to arrive at some understanding of evolution, relationships,
and ecology. He continued this activity after moving back to
the continental US, first to Cambridge City, Indiana, and then
Knightstown, Indiana. According to his wife, Alice Hartman,
he worked on his shells up to his last night. On The Captured
Cowrie web site, Bob described himself as, .just some guy
who likes the ocean and collecting shells, for the most part.”
On the same page he stated that he, “came to understand that
stuff happens and luck happens. But there are always some
who seem to miss the real points of shelling, which are (to
this writer’s mind) camaraderie in sharing your finds with
other like-minded persons and adding to our understanding
of the splendid animals which produce such stunning works
of beauty.” His email “handle” was makuabob and under that
handle he provided knowledge and insight, as well as a lasting
heritage in The Captured Cowrie.

Page 24

Vol. 38, No. 3

Cozumel (Mayan for Island of the Sparrows, Kuutsmil in
modern Mayan), Mexico, is a small (16km by 48km) island located
20km off the eastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula and 60km
south of Cancun. The largest town on the island is San Miguel de
Cozumel with a population of about 71,000. The island is a well-
known tourist destination, famous for its SCUBA and snorkeling.
Cozumel is fairly flat and is mostly limestone, containing
numerous caves as well as several cenotes, sink holes filled with
ground water. Many of the cenotes are suitable for SCUBA or
snorkeling, but be forewarned, you must be a qualified cave diver
and be registered with the government. The surrounding ocean

provides the majority of income for island residents, either directly
through fishing and charter operations or indirectly through the
many hotels and restaurants that support the tourist trade. Cozumel
is a regular stop for Caribbean cruise ships.

There are a number of Mayan ruins on the island,
although none as spectacular as found on the mainland. The Maya
are thought to have settled on the island a thousand years ago, but
even earlier artifacts (Olmec) have been discovered. The Spanish
arrived in 1518 and many of the Mayan temples were subsequently
destroyed.

Diving off Cozumel is truly spectacular with clear waters
highlighting the numerous Caribbean species. Spectacular coral
reefs are protected by the island geography and the Mexican
government established the Cozumel Reefs National Marine Park
in 1996 to help maintain the pristine nature of the area. These
images are a few of the many mollusks I encountered on my last
trip to this area.

Jim Lyle --jameslyle@roadmnner.com

Left: Charonia variegata (Lamarck, 1816), the Atlantic Triton,
on the prowl for tasy ecinoderms.

Below: Volvarina albolineata d’Orbigny, 1842, a small but nice¬
ly patterned marginellid.

September 2010

American Conchologist

Page 25

Erosaria acicularis (Gmelin, 1791), the Atlantic yellow cowrie.

A small unidentified marginellid with fully extended mantle.

Turbinella angulata (Lightfoot, 1786), the West Indian chank.

Turbinella angulata egg case.

Fasciolaria tulipa (Linnaeus, 1758), the true tulip.

Fasciolaria tulipa egg case being laid. Jim Lyle: JamesLyle@
roadrunner.com

Page 26

Vol. 38, No. 3

Are those Mexican slippers?

J.M. Inchaustegui

At a recent shell auction of the Houston Conchology
Society, sponsored by the Houston Museum of Natural Science,
I saw two Conus recurvus Broderip, 1833,* in one Zip-Lock bag
on a silent auction table. Because the last bid was quite low, I
placed a bid on them and periodically returned to raise my bid if
someone had out-bid me. I heard this lady sheller complain to her
companion “I am having trouble with #12 (my number). Every
time I bid on those cones, he comes right behind me and raises
the bid!” When the bidding was finished I had gotten these two
cones at a very nice price. Little did I know that I had done better
than I realized, since rather than two shells there were three. I will
explain below.

At home as I was examining the shells I noticed a strange
“hump” on one of them and a peculiar “flaring” of the outer lip
near the shoulder, opposite the “hump.” This cone had an intact
periostracum, which I wanted to preserve, so I gently pushed on
the “hump” with my thumb, but it would not move or come off. I
put the shell in cool water to soak a minute or and when I pushed
again, the “hump” came off. It turned out to be a little 21mm
Crepidula that had attached itself (probably while very young) to
the live cone and did not come off after the shell was collected and
cleaned. So I had three shells in the Zip-Lock bag, not two as I had
originally thought. As I examined the peculiar flared lip, which at
first I thought was due to a “freak” growth, I began to surmise that
the “flaring” was caused by the slipper shell crowding the cone’s
aperture. As the cone grew its last whorl it flared the lip out to
accommodate the Crepidula.

I have tentatively identified the “hump” as Crepidula
excavata (Broderip, 1834) of which A. Myra Keen says in her
book “Sea Shells of Tropical West America,” “Lower California
throughout the Gulf and south to Panama, on other shells, especially
Polinices. ” This little shell probably never read the book because
here it was on a living Conus.

*Ed note: Conus recurvus Broderip, 1833, is apparently no longer
valid as the type does not match shells of that name, the correct
name is probably Conus (Kohniconus) emarginatus Reeve, 1844.

Fig. 1 On the left is the 53mm Conus recurvus Broderip, 1833
Manzanillo, Mexico, collected by Theresa Stelzig on 1 Jan 1975,
with the “hump,” flared lip, and intact periostracum. On the
right for comparison is a typical C. recurvus from Guaymas,
Mexico, collected by Ruth Anne Sparlin in 1988.

Fig. 2 A dorsal view of the cones with the 21mm Crepidula
excavata between them. Notice that the color of the slipper
shell mimics the color of the host Conus on the left, surely no
coincidence.

Fig. 3 (left) An apertural view of the hitch-hiking Crepidula.

Photos by the author. I have extra C. recurvus as well as other
cones that I would like to trade.

J. M. Inchaustegui
14243 Ingham Ct,

Sugar Land, TX 77498
j oaquininc@aol. com

September 2010

American Conchologist

Page 27

Report on the Epitoniidae of the East China Sea- Part 2

Lenny Brown

This is my second Report on the Epitoniidae of the East China Sea.
It covers species not discussed in my previous report, American
Conchologist 37(2), 2009. As I noted in the prior article, that
first report was only preliminary and further collecting would
undoubtedly document additional epitoniid species not discussed
in that article. As expected, that indeed proved to be the case
and the additional epitoniid species identified subsequent to the
publication of the first report are listed below. Readers interested
in additional information on the epitoniid species in this section of
the Pacific Ocean are urged to read my prior article on the subject.

Species List

Amaea cf. gratissima (Thiele, 1925) (Fig. 1) Thiele (1925:134
[100], pi. 11, fig. 2) described Scala gratissima based on a specimen
collected off Dar-es-Salaam [Tanzania] at a depth of 404m. The
holotype of Scala gratissima is 5.7mm in length and is illustrated in
Fig. 2. The correct generic placement of this species is a question.
In Weil, et. al. (1999: 88), this species was provisionally placed
in the genus Eccliseogyra. Species in Eccliseogyra have ribbed
protoconchs. Because of the smooth protoconch evident in Fig. 2,
however, together with the cancellate sculpture on the teleoconch
whorls and the strong basal disk, it is my opinion that this species
actually belongs in the genus Amaea. While the specimen from the
East China Sea illustrated in Figure 1 is 19mm in length, making it
more than three times as large as Thiele’s holotype of S. gratissima ,
it is otherwise quite similar to the species described by Thiele. To
date, I have seen only a few examples of this species from the East
China Sea. None of the specimens had any information regarding
the depth at which they were collected, however, the fact that I
have seen so few specimens leads me to suspect that this species is
found in deep water.

Amaea inexperta (Brown & Weil in Weil, et al., 1999) (Fig. 3)
This species was described based on material from Singapore. The
illustrated specimen extends the known range of this species north
to the East China Sea.

Amaea (?) rubigosola Lee, 2001 (Fig. 4) This species was discussed
but not figured in the first report.

Cirsotrema edgari (de Boury, 1912)

Epitonium cf. eximiellum (Masahito, Kuroda & Habe, in Kuroda,
et. al. , 1971) (Fig. 5)

Epitonium extenuicostum (de Boury, 1913) (Fig. 6) De Boury
(1913: 82) proposed his replacement name for this species because
Scalaria tenuicostata G. B. Sowerby, II, 1844, is preoccupied by
Seal aria tenuicostata Michaud, 1830.

Epitonium fucatum (Pease, 1861) (Fig. 7)

Epitonium koshimagani (Nakayama, 1991) (Fig. 8)

Epitonium sakuraii (Kuroda & Habe in Habe, 1961) (Fig. 9)

Epitonium tokyoense Kuroda, 1930 (Fig. 10)

Epitonium umbilicatum (Pease, 1869) (Fig. 11)

Epitonium yangi Brown, 2010 (Fig. 12) This species was described
in the June 2010 issue of Novapex. While similar to Epitonium
spyridion Kilburn, 1985, a species illustrated in the previous report
on the Epitoniidae of the East China, it can be distinguished from
E. spyridion by the combination of more numerous costae with
peaks set closer to the sutures and the more numerous spiral lines
between the costae. In addition, E. yangi lacks the fenestrate
sutures present in E. spyridion.

Fragilopalia nebulodermata Azuma, 1972 (Fig. 13)

Gyroscala iwaotakii (Azuma, 1961) While Azuma placed this
species in the genus Amaea in the original description, because
of the combination of numerous costae and the weak basal keel,
I follow Nakayama (2003: 79) who transferred this species to the
genus Gyroscala.

Opalia mormulaeformis (Masahito, Kuroda & Habe, in Kuroda,
et. al ., 1971) (Fig. 14)

Surrepifungium costulatum (Kiener, 1838) (Fig. 15)

Acknowledgements: I want to thank Dr. Tomas Rintelen at the
Zoological Museum, Berlin for providing the photographs of the
holotype of Scala gratissima and Tom Eichhorst who photographed
the illustrated specimens and prepared the plates for this article.

Literature cited:

de Boury, E. 1913. Observations sur quelques especes ou sous-
genres de Scalidx. Journal de Conchyliologie 61(1), 65-
112 .

Nakayama, T. 2003. A review of northwest Pacific epitoniids
(Gastropoda: Epitoniidae). Monographs of Marine
Mollusca No. 6. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden.

Thiele, J. 1925. Gastropoda der Deutschen Tiefsee-Expedition.

II. Wiss. Ergebn. dt. Tiefsee exped. ‘Valdivia’, 17, 37-382.
Weil, A., Brown, L. & Neville, B. 1999. The Wentletrap Book:
Guide to the recent Epitoniidae of the world. Evolver,
Rome, Italy.

Lenny Brown
Epmanshell@aol.com

Page 28

Vol. 38, No. 3

September 2010

American Conchologist

Page 29

Page 30

Vol. 38, No. 3

A reclusive Tennessee native snail:
Anguispira picta (Clapp, 1920) (Discidae)

by Tom Eichhorst (images from Doug Shelton and the Alabama
Malacological Research Center (AMRC) & the author)

The land snail genus Anguispira Morse, 1864, is
widespread across most of the eastern to midwestern United States
and from Florida in the South to Canada in the North. It is part
of the family Discidae, and most people in both the United States
and Europe have seen other common genera in this family, Discus
and Punctum, small disk-shaped shells, often seen after turning
over a stone or cleaning up dead leaf debris. There are also a
couple of dozen genera of Discidae throughout islands in the
Pacific. In the U.S., most species of Anguispira seem to have been
grouped under the catch-all genus Helix when first described. This
was quickly resolved as various authors separated out the genus
Anguispira. The type species is Anguispira alternata (Say, 1816)
from the northeastern U.S. and Canada. Anguispira are typically
not diminutive like other genera within the family, but rather of an
average size of around 15-20mm or more. This means they are
rather easily collected and probably reside in most U.S. land snail
collections - except, maybe, for one species from Tennessee.

Anguispira picta (Clapp, 1920), the painted snake coiled
forest snail or Buck Creek snail or painted tigersnail, was first
discovered on a limestone outcropping in a small valley called
Buck Creek Cove, southwest of Sherwood, Franklin County,
Tennessee, in 1906. G.H. Clapp published the description of the
snail in 1920 using the name Pyramidula picta. In 1948 Pilsbry
assigned it to the genus Anguispira and relegated it to subspecies
status as Anguispira cumberlandiana picta. This was probably
based on the fact that Anguispira cumberlandiana is found in
almost all of the territory surrounding Buck Creek Cove. In
1976, Alan Solem determined that A. picta was indeed a distinct
species based upon a study of penial, radular, habitat, and shell
structural characteristics. Interestingly, this species, a member
of an otherwise widespread genus, had still not been discovered
anywhere but the type locality in Franklin County, Tennessee,
where Solem found it only between 750-800 feet elevation. The
snail’s habitat in Buck Creek Cove was estimated by Solem to be
an area about 0.4 miles wide and 1.2 miles long (approximately
325 acres). Later studies found it was not quite as restricted in area
and elevation as listed by Solem, but extended from 750 to 1,500
feet in elevation (USF&WS, 1982) and an area of approximately
1,950 acres along 9.8 miles of the Cumberland Plateau escarpment
in Crow Creek Valley (USF&WS, 2006). Solem estimated the
snail’s population at 2,000 individuals, but later studies indicate
it may be 10 times that amount (USF&WS, 1982). The U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service listed the species as endangered in 1978.
Numerous searches, as late as 2004, confirmed that this small (17-
21mm wide, 10mm high), intricately-patterned snail with the long
name was endemic to Franklin County (Withers, 2003 & 2004).

A. picta has a fairly flat (slightly dome shaped) shell that
is beige with dark spots on the ventrum and narrow dark flame¬
like markings on the dorsum. Juveniles are more brightly colored
with an almost orange background color. The snails are found
on limestone ledges or within crevices, in areas of mature tail-
growth forest. Their primary food source seems to be lichens for

which the snails forage both day and night (Freedman, 2002 &
USF&WS, 1982). This snail is not rare within the type locality,
but because it is limited to this one small area and thus extremely
vulnerable to habitat disruption or destruction (e.g. lumbering,
forest fire, quarrying), it was accorded protected status. The U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service published an approved recovery plan
in 1982 (USF&WS, 1982) that was reviewed in 1991 and 2006,
both reviews finding the original recovery plan inadequate and the
snail population stable but endangered by pressure to quarry the
area for limestone, timber harvest, and residential development
(USF&WS, 2006). The state of Tennessee boasts over 225 land
snail taxa, 100 aquatic snail taxa, and 120 freshwater mussel taxa,
and is well aware of the need to monitor and protect this small
snail (Withers, 2009).

Anguispira picta is found in museum collections, but
probably few private ones. The shells illustrated here were
collected legally by Doug Shelton during a project funded by the
State of Tennessee and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (Shelton,
pers. comm, 2010). Doug served as an agent of the State of
Tennessee during the project. The shells were all dead taken and
serve as voucher specimens for distribution to museums. Slowly
encroaching development or one raging forest fire could spell
extinction for this small snail.

Abbott, R. Tucker. 1989. “Compendium of Landshells,” American
Malacologists, Inc., Melbourne, FL., pp. 240.

Clapp, G.H. 1920. A new species of Pyramidula from Alabama and
notes on P. cumberlandiana with new varieties. The Nautilus , vol. 34, pp.
23-26. Available on line at: www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/17803#5
Freedman, R. 2002. Anguispira picta (on l ine), Animal Diversity Web,
accessed 9 September 2010 at: www.animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/
site/accounts/information/Anguispira_picta.html
Solem, Alan. 1976. Species criteria in Anguispira ( Anguispira )
(Pulmonata: Discidae), The Nautilus, vol. 90, (1) pp. 15-23.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. 1982. Painted Snake Coiled Forest Snail
Recovery Plan, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Atlanta, Georgia, pp. 26,
available online at: www.fws.gov/southeast/5yearReviews/5yearreviews/
PaintedSnakeCoiledForestSnail.pdf.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. 2006. Painted Snake Coiled Forest Snail
(Anguispira picta ) 5-Year Review, available online at: www.fws.gov/so
utheast/5yearReviews/5yearreviews/PaintedSnakeCoiledForestSnail.pdf
Withers, David. 2003. Distributional Surveys for Anguispira picta.
Painted Snake Coiled Forest Snail, a report to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service under Revenue Grant #1448-40181-02-G-051. Tennessee
Division of Natural Heritage, Nashville, TN, pp. 20.

Withers, David. 2004. Distributional Surveys for the Painted Snake
Coiled Forest Snail, ( Anguispira picta ) under Revenue Grant #1448-
40181-02-G-051, Addendum to Final Report. Tennessee Division of
Natural Heritage, Nashville, TN, pp. 11.

Withers, David. 2009. A Guide to the Rare Animals of Tennessee,
Tennessee Natural Heritage Program, Division of Natural Areas, Tenn.
Depart, of Environment & Conservation, pp. 61. Available on line at:
www. state.tn.us/environment/na

Thomas E. Eichhorst — thomas@nerite.com

September 2010

American Conchologist

Page 31

A. alternata (Say, 1816), 16-17mm, New York.

A. cumberlandiana (Lea, 1840), 15-16mm, Tennessee.

A. fergusoni (Bland, 1861), 15mm, Maryland.

A. picta (Clapp, 1920), 15-16mm, Tennessee (AMRC photo).

A. alabama (Clapp, 1920), 17mm, aestivating on limestone
(AMRC photo).

Discus patula (Deshayes, 1830), 8-9mm, Indiana (note the
small size).

Vol. 38, No. 4, December 2010

tiomas@nerite.com http://

w.conchologis tsofamerica.org

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Page 2

Vol. 38, No. 4

CONCHOLOGISTS

OF AMERICA, INC.

In 1972, a group of shell collectors saw the need for a national or¬
ganization devoted to the interests of shell collectors; to the beauty of
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In 1995, COA adopted a conservation resolution: Whereas there are an
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December 2010

American Conchologist

Page 3

In This Issue

Letters and Comments-3

Ifremeria nautilei Bouchet & Waren, 1991

by Tom Eichhorst-4

Gettleman key to probe of major reversals by Harry Lee-6

In Memoriam-11

Four Abnormal Landsnails from Israel

by Moshe Erlendur Okon-12

Dealer Directory-14

COA2010 Convention: Shellebration Boston-16

2011 Shell Shows & Related Events (Jan - Jul)

by Donald Dan-18

Conchologists of America: Neptunea Award

by Harry Lee-19

A rough few months for COA members; we lost four-20

Thoughts From a Shell Collector to Her Family and Friends:
a poem by Betty Jean Piech-21

Back to the Gulf of Aqaba: the search for rare shells

of the Red Sea by Moti Kovalis-22

First Modern Shell Show in China by Robert Janowsky-25

Conus recurvus Broderip, 1833: One Mo’ Time

by J. VI. Inchaustegui-26

The rise and fall of “Conus recurvus Broderip 1833”
by Bruce Neville-27

Editor’s comments: First, I have to correct a couple of errors.

In the last issue of American Conchologist , vol. 38, no. 3, Sep
2010,1 both misspelled and misspoke in the review of “The
Sound of a Wild Snail Eating.” The author, Elizabeth Tova
Bailey spells her first name with a “z” rather than the “s” I
used. She is also not actually recovered from her mystery
illness, but rather still coping with chronic illness and its many
complications to life. Mea culpa.

This next error is thankfully someone else’s. Winston Barney
wrote to inform me that the assignment of the stromb genera
Dolomena and Doxander to Iredale was in error ( American
Conchologist , vol. 38, no. 3, Sep 2010). Winston states that
according to Kronenberg & Dharma (2005, see ref. for article),
“Iredale only gave names and no descriptions for Dolomena
and Doxander , leaving both nomen nudum. The authors could
find no earlier reference to these genera prior to Wenz (1940),
thus making him the author of record: Dolomena Wenz, 1840
and Doxander Wenz, 1840.”

?

%

I was pleased to note the First
International Cone Meeting in
Stuttgart, Germany, in October.
According to my sources there
were several interesting papers
presented and lots of discussion
centered on the family Conidae.
This first meeting falls on the heels of the online publication
of The Cone Collector , now in its fourth year. This cone-
centered Internet publication has been sponsored by the
Poppes and can be downloaded for free from their web site at:
http://www.conchology.be

Cklabrl ZCIi

This issue is rather eclectic as usual, with hopefully at least
one article for everybody.

An Eleutheran Adventure: My First Live

Shell Collecting Trip by Amelia Ann Dick-29

COA Award Winners-33

Mystery Bivalve in the Caribbean by D.Y. Zhang-34

Front cover: A superb and richly patterned specimen of
Entemnotrochus adansoniana (Crosse & Fischer, 1861).
Photograph by Charles Rawlings, off Roatan, Honduras,
in 55 feet of water, after bringing the specimen up from
428 feet. The change in depth did not seem to affect the
slit shell as its behavior continued as it had been at the
deeper depth.

Back cover: A14 inch Triplofusus gigantea (Kiener, 1840)
(horse conch), attacking a much smaller Busycon sinis-
trum Hollister, 1958 (lightning whelk). This tableau took
place in 10 inches of water and was spotted and photo¬
graphed by David and Sandra Herman off Sanibel Island,
FL, 5 November 2010.

Page 4

Vol. 38, No. 4

Ifremeria nautilei Bouchet & Waren, 1991

by Tom Eichhorst

I recently received an image of a deep water shell from
Simon Aiken of Simon’s Specimen Shells Ltd., in the United
Kingdom (http://www.simons-specimen-shells.com). Simon has
long supported American Conchologist with images and articles,
and this time he had a shell he thought was special enough to be of
interest to our readers. Well, he was certainly correct. The shell
is Ifremeria nautilei Bouchet & Waren, 1991. The specimen was
brought up from 6,600 feet in the Mariana Trough by the DSV
Nautile. A couple of interesting side notes are that the Nautile
is owned and operated by Ifremer (Institut frangais de recherche
pour T exploitation de la mer [the French Research Institute for
Exploration of the Sea]), thus the genus name. This submersible
was commissioned in 1984 and is capable of diving to depths
(and more importantly, returning from depths) as deep as 6km
or 3.7 miles. The Nautile has a rich history of scientific dives,
but there are two missions for which it is perhaps best known: the
examination and photography of the wreck of the RMS Titanic and
the search in the Atlantic for the flight data recorder and cockpit
voice recorder after the crash of Air France Flight 447 on 1 June
2009. Of concern here is the exploration the Nautile made of the
Mariana Trough that provided this interesting specimen.

The Mariana Trough lies south of Japan in the western
Pacific Ocean, just west of the larger and deeper Marianas Trench,
a gash in the sea floor over 1,500 miles long but with an average
width of only 43 miles and depths of over 10,800 meters or 6.75
miles. To the west of this is the Marina Trough, an active volcanic
area resulting from the collision of two tectonic plates that form
the deeper Marianas Trench. The older and heavier Pacific Plate
is subducted or forced under the Mariana Plate creating the deep
Marianas Trench with two resultant ridges to the west: the Mariana
Arc containing the Marianas Islands (including the island of
Guam) and the ridge further west called the West Mariana Arc.
In between these two ridges is an area about the size of California
called the Mariana Trough. The trough varies between 2800 and
5400 meters depth (9,186 to 17,700 feet). The volcanic activity in
this area provides the suitable habitat for Ifremeria nautilei.

Ifremeria nautilei (first identified from the Lau and North
Fiji Basins) is a hydrothermal vent dweller with endosymbiotic
bacteria that allow it to exist and even thrive in the cold, dark,
oxygen-starved depths. These gastropods inhabit the sea floor in
areas of hydrothermal emissions that raise temperatures to a range
of from 3°C to 20°C (37°F to 68°F). With temperature taken care
of, two types of endosymbiotic bacteria provide their host with
oxygen from the surrounding water and food from the sulfur
emissions.

Ifremeria nautilei is the only species in the genus
Ifremeria and has been placed in the family Provannidae with
four other genera, all inhabitants of hydrothermal vents, cold
seeps, whale falls, or sunken driftwood. Ifremeria nautilei has a
unique larval form only recently discovered. For the first 15 days
or so after hatching (they are brooded in a special camber in the
female’s pallial cavity, a part of the mantle) the larva are not the
typical veligers we associate with most gastropods. Instead they
are covered with cilia, longer on the posterior end, and develop

Above: DSV Nautile, owned and operated by Ifremer, the
French Research Institute for Exploration of the Sea. Photo by
Bjorn Som Tegner on Wikipedia, used IAW site instructions.
Below: Living specimens of Ifremeria nautilei clustered on the
sea floor with associated limpets (Olgasolaris sp.). Photo by P.
Briand, from Wikipedia, used IAW site instructions.

two anterior globular structures. This larval form is called Waren’s
larva. After about 15 days the larva undergoes a metamorphosis
into a typical gastropod veliger.

Thanks to Simon we can present this image of a shell
that few collectors would otherwise see, much less possess.
Olgaconcha tufari L.A. Beck, 1991 is a junior synonym.

Resources:

Allen, Chris. 2010. Encyclopedia of Life at: http://www.eol.org/
pages/4932582, accessed on 29 Nov 2010.

Beck, L.A. 1991. Olgaconcha tufari n. gen. et n. sp. - a new
mesogastropod (Gastropoda: Prosobranchia) from hydrothermal vents in
the Manus Back-Arc Basin ( Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea). Ann.
Naturhist. Mus. Wien. 92(B): p. 277-287.

Bouchet, P. & Waren, A. 1991. Ifremeria nautilei , a new gastropod
from hydrothermal vents, probably associated with symbiotic bacteria.
C.R. Acad. Sci., Paris, sep. Ill, Vol. 312, no. 10, pp. 495-501.
Desbruyeres, D., Segonzac, M., and Bright, M. (eds.) 2006 Handbook
of Deep-sea Hydrothermal Vent Fauna. Second completely revised
edition. Denisia 18: 544 pp.

Thomas E. Eichhorst
thomas@nerite.com

December 2010

American Conchologist

Page 5

Ifremeria nautilei Bouchet & Waren, 1991 (54.5mm), taken at 6600 feet, Mariana Back-Arc Basin, by DSVNautile (Schaake
collection). Image by Simon's Specimen Shells Ltd., http://www.simons-specimen-shells.com

Page 6

Vol. 38, No. 4

Gettleman key to probe of major reversals

by Harry G. Lee

1. The strange case of Cerion fraternum Pilsbry, 1902
(Eupulmonata: Urocoptoidea) on Cat Island, Bahamas

By his own admission, former COA President Alan
Gettleman of Merritt Island, FL, is relatively new to saturation
landsnailing. A self-admitted “musselhead” for years, he was
greatly influenced by the late Hessie Kemper during his St.
Louis days. On the other hand, Hessie’s sister, the late Frieda
Schilling, was a landsnailer, and Alan was thus exposed to that
side of conchology early on (Gettleman, 2010). Yet only in the
last few years, particularly since his retirement from NASA two
years ago, has he reprised his interest in terrestrial snails. Despite
the relative novelty of the enterprise, he has embraced this aspect
of shelling with a passion reminiscent of Frieda’s. Several field
trips, each lasting a week or more, have taken him to Jamaica,
Alabama, the Smokies and Blue Ridge, back to St. Louis, and
recently to Mayaguana, Chub Cay, and Cat Island in the Bahamas.
On those latter three trips he was exposed to the great panoply of
peanut snails, genus Cerion , which find their metropolis in this
island group, where they are both speciose and exhibit high rates
of endemnicity. He pled guilty to a new addiction as he began to
look closely at taxonomy and other aspects of Cerion biology.

While on Cat Island with the Bailey Matthews Shell
Museum field contingent this April, Alan spent the better part
of a week gathering Cerion from a variety of accessible (some
barely) habitats. One lesson learned by most Cerion collectors is
that large series of specimens are essential to the appreciation of
shell variation within and among the generally small and isolated
colonies of these snails. With that in mind, Alan retrieved a couple
of hundred empty specimens of what appeared to be a populous
but recently-extirpated colony of Cerion fraternum Pilsbry, 1902
near the SE end of the island. This is one of the smallest species in
the hundreds named in the genus, being about 1/2 inch at maturity.
The other Cat Island species, numbering a half-dozen or more,
average about twice that in height.

Several days after his return home, Alan was curating his
many Cat Island shells and mirabile dictu , came across a reverse-
coiled (sinistral) specimen in this large lot of empty shells. The
specimen was subadult - the lip not thickened and reflected, but
it sure was left-handed (Fig. 1, Bill Frank digital image). One
of his early responses was to report this bit of news to me. Alan
no doubt recalled that at this very station I had made it clear that
I was selectively searching for sinistral specimens in this colony
for about a half hour, estimating well over a thousand dextral-only
specimens caught my eye. Meanwhile, neither Alan nor Anne
Joffe (who took the photo of Alan in full field regalia (Fig. 2), the
remainder of our collecting triad, were so disposed. Bitter irony
aside, I am compelled to offer an insight into the singularity of this
Gettleman coup-de-grace. First, a little history is in order:

Perhaps by sheer coincidence, the first sinistral Cerion
specimen ever brought to light was also found on Cat Island,
Bahamas (Plate, 1907) and reported as C. fordi [= C. agassizii
(Dali, 1894) fide Gould, Young, and Kasson, 1985], The
collector, German biologist Ludwig Hermann Plate (1862-1937),

Fig. 1 Rare sinistral (R) and normal dextral (L) specimens of
Cerion fraternum Pilsbry, 1902, collected by Alan Gettleman
on Cat Island. The adult shell is less than 1/2 inch in length.

is memorialized by Cerion platei Clench, 1933 (Fig. 3, from
Harasewych, 2006, with the author’s permission), recognized as a
Cat Island endemic. Alan and others collected both these species
earlier on this trip.

Charles Johnson Maynard (1845-1929) (Fig 4), the
most prodigious student of Cerion in the history of conchology
(Harasewych et al., 2007), found three sinistral specimens
(Maynard, 1920: 81). Two were from a single sample including
about 1,962 dextral deme-mates and later named C. santesoni
(Maynard and Clapp, 1929) [= C. glans (Kuster, 1844) fide
Gould, Young, and Kasson, 1985] from the northern shore of
New Providence Island, Bahamas. Perhaps surprisingly, one of
the sinistral shells was designated the lectotype (MCZ358073:
Harasewych et al., 2007). The fourth left-handed Peanut Snail
was collected along with 583 dextral deme-mates on Bird Cay,
Exuma Islands, Bahamas. It became the lectotype (MCZ356677:

December 2010

American Conchologist

Page 7

Fig. 2 Alan Gettleman decked out in the latest shelter's fashion.

Harasewych etal., 2007) of C. inconstans (Maynard, 1920) [also =
C. glans (Kiister, 1844 )fide Gould, Young, and Kasson, 1985]. Over
a half-century elapsed before Bill Kasson located a fifth specimen,
previously unrecognized, in a lot of C. incanum (A. Binney, 1851)
collected on Big Pine Key, Monroe Co., Florida, at the OSUM
(abbreviations of institutional repositories listed on page 10). Not
much later Stephen Jay Gould found a second sinistral C. incanum ,
also from Big Pine Key and likewise unrecognized, in the MCZ.
These latter five specimens and some of their dextral deme-mates
formed the basis of an extensive morphometric analysis by Gould,
Young, and Kasson (1985).

Operating far from the metropolis of the family, and
quite unaware that he was dethroning Grand Master Maynard,
Phil Poland of Tampa, FL, found five more sinistral C. incanum in
the Lower Florida Keys, four of them from a single population on
Boca Chica Key over a few visits spanning about a year (Poland,
2000). (Fig. 5) is an example from Phil’s camera.

After over a century of field and museum work on Cerion
by many scientists and other enthusiasts with probably a million or
more shells examined, Alan can bask in the glory of knowing he’s
only the sixth collector to bag a sinistral Cerion - and apparently
only the fourth to know that he had actually done so! His left-
handed C. fraternum, while being the twelfth sinistral cerionid

Fig. 3 Cerion platei Clench, 1933, endemic to Cat Island.

Fig. 4 Charles Johnson Maynard (1845-1929), an ornithologist
and a dedicated student of Cerion.

shell ever reported, is the sole representative of only the fourth
species of this family to be known in the sinistral condition. In
summary:

Cerion agassizii (Dali, 1894) L. Plate! 1

Cerion fraternum Pilsbry, 1902 A. Gettleman! 1

Cerion glans (Kiister, 1844) C.J. Maynard! 3

Cerion incanum (A. Binney, 1851) Anon! 2; P. Poland! 5 = 7

Total: 4 species, 12 specimens. Four collectors accounting for 10
specimens.

Page 8

Vol. 38, No. 4

Fig. 5 Cerion incanum (A. Binney, 1851), 25mm. Collected by
Phil Poland in the Florida Keys, dextral (L) and sinistral (R).

2. One thing leads to another. A new twist in the
Polygyridae (Eupulmonata: Polygyroidea)

Fig. 6 Mesodon clausus (Say, 1821), 16mm. The shell on the
left is the only known sinistral adult specimen of this species.

The Gettleman Collection isn’t small, unidimensional, or
limited to self-collected material. There are plenty of pre-owned
(recycled) specimens. Among these are a number of land snails
obtained from dealers and other collectors. It was from the latter
resource, although an as yet untraced chain of ownership, that Alan
acquired a number of specimens originating in the Aron L. Mehring
collection. Mehring, a resident of Adelphi and of Hyattsville,
MD, and a fertilizer scientist by profession, produced a typescript
manuscript monograph on the land snails of Jamaica, based in
part on his collections there (R. Goldberg, pers. comm.. 27 June,
2010). He also collected freshwater and marine shells, as well as
echinoderms, in Cuba, Pacific Panama, Hawaii, the Philippines,
Japan, and Florida, from (at least) 1947- 1964 (NMNH, 2010).
For Fiscal Year 1963-1964, a portion, about 3,500 lots and 23,800
specimens, of his collection was the largest given to the NMNH
Division of Mollusks (Rehder ms: 150 teste M.G. Harasewych, 29
June, 2010).

As is often the case with us collectors, Alan took only
momentary notice of most of these Mehring specimens initially. He
was, however, given momentary pause by a left-handed shell in the
material, a single specimen lot from Houston collected by Mehring
himself. Now, this was several years before Alan’s terrestrial
epiphany, and he relates that he was quite content to regard this
as a “normal” sinistral specimen. No doubt energized by his
Cerion discovery, Alan recently dug this specimen of “Mesodon
bucculentus Gould” out, reported it to me, and ultimately lent it for
close examination and photography. The shell actually belongs to
the closely-related M. clausus (Say, 1821), and is the only known

Fig. 7 Leslie Hubricht (1908-2005), a friend and probably the
preeminent collector of eastern US landsnails.

December 2010

American Conchologist

Page 9

Ww***

IT * 1 ^ l

T

fA* '

(YV ^ cVaaJ s: l' ^ ■

H ^

Tr ^

\ V kW

v<.wr<kv VWi^ ^4°

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Fig. 8 The August 1978 postcard from Leslie Hubricht listing
sinistral Polygyridae.

sinistral adult specimen of this species in existence! (Fig. 6, Bill
Frank digital image)

As with the Cerion , there is one undisputed champion
collector of eastern US landsnails, Leslie Hubricht (1908-2005)
(Fig. 7, with the permission of Jochen Gerber). I had the privilege
of working with Leslie in the field on a few occasions and
maintaining a correspondence for more than two decades. As it
suited both of our styles, our messages were usually short, and
in those pre-Intemet days (1970’s to 1990’s) postcards were quite
suitable for streamlined communication. As I have been interested
in gastropod coiling reversal for a very long time, on one occasion
I mailed him a self-addressed stamped postcard requesting him to
summarize his experience with sinistral Polygyridae, the family
including Alan’s Mesodon. Fig. 8 is the August 13,1978 response.
Although Leslie probably handled something on the order of a few
hundred thousand polygyrids, he had found only eleven specimens
of five species! Interestingly an immature Mesodon clausus was
one of the eleven! Over the years I have gathered notes on other
sinistral polygyrids, and on the occasion of Alan’s second sinistral
score, I thought it might provide context for this kind of rare
discovery. Here follows an account, in roughly the same format as
the above Cerion tabulation, of all the known instances of sinistral
specimens of polygyrids in the USA and northern Mexico (brackets
[] include reference and collection details, ! indicates collector:

Allogonaprofunda (Say, 1821) [Pilsbry, 1940: 879: “Shimekand
Billups have recorded 4” (no reference)] (4)

Daedalochila avara (Say, 1818) [4132 Ortega Forest Dr.,
Jacksonville, FL, H.G. Lee! 27 July, 1977; Lee Collection] (Fig.
9) (1)

Euchemotrema leai (A. Binney, 1841) [Archer, 1934: 148: Ann
Arbor, MI, Alan F. Archer! 1932-1933] (1)

Inflectarius inflectus (Say, 1821) [Bland, 1861: 448: John Gould
Anthony Collection, ?MCZ; Pilsbry, 1940: 773: Hubricht! St.
Louis, MO; FMNH; Feinberg, 1970: 12-13: Carter Co., TN,
Harold S. Feinberg! 4 June, 1969, AMNH 157293] (3)

Linisca texasiana (Moricand, 1833) [Hubricht, 1978: three,

FMNH] (3)

Mesodon clausus { Say, 1821) [Hubricht, 1978: immature; FMNH;
Houston, TX, A.L. Mehring! 13 December, 1960. Gettleman
Collection] (2)

Mesodon elevatus (Say, 1821) [Tryon 1867: 104: Frank Daulte
Collection, Cincinnatti] (1)

Mesodon mitchellianus (I. Lea, 1839) [Bland, 1861: 448: Thomas
Bland Collection, 7AMNH but not in Gratacap (1901); Wetherby,
1895: 94: near Cincinnati, OH, F.W. Bryant!] (2?)

Mesodon thyroidus (Say, 1817) [Bland, 1861: 448: Bland
Collection, 7AMNH but not in Gratacap (1901); Wetherby, 1895:
94: three shells: one Cincinnati, OH, Stannage! two Wetherby! one
deposited at MCZ; Archer, 1934: 148-149: two specimens, Ann
Arbor, MI, A.F. Archer! April, May, 1933; Petit, R.E., March 2007,
personal communication, G. R. Webb letter to P. H. Reed late Sept,
or early Oct., 1946, prob. FMNH] (8?)

Mesodon zalelus (A. Binney, 1837) [Pilsbry, 1940: 725: two
specimens: one Herkimer Co, NY, one ANSP; Fluck, 1943: 105:
two of several hundred individuals, Ilion, Herkimer Co., NY, W.H.
Fluck!] N.B. Ilion colony introduced by J. Lewis {fide A. Bailey,
Pilsbry, 1940: 724-725), therefore derived from dextral stock. (3-
4?)

Millerelix mooreana (W. G. Binney, 1857) [Pilsbry, 1940: 624:
J.A. Singley!] (1)

Neohelix albolabris (Say, 1817) [Lewis, 1872: 99: near Mohawk,
NY, James Lewis! June, 1871; Pilsbry, 1940: 838: several known;
Reigle, 1962: 37; Washtenaw Co., MI, Phil Marsh(?)!; UMMZ
210163] (prob. >6)

Patera roemeri (L. Pfeiffer, 1848) [Pratt, 1965: Possum Kingdom
SP, Palo Pinto Co., TX, W(illiam) Lloyd Pratt! (7)1965, Pratt
Collection no. 992] (1)

Polygyra cereolus (Miihlfeld, 1818) [Baily, 1942: 102: Hillsboro,
FL, R.I. Baily! Spring 1940; Sullivan, 1986: Desoto Park, Manatee
Co., FL, Wayne Sullivan! 1986] (Fig. 10) (2)

Polygyra septemvolva Say, 1818 [W.G. Binney, 1878: 282
MCZ; Waccasassa River, SR 24 bridge, Levy Co., Florida, John
Slapcinsky! 19 March, 2005, Lee Collection] (Fig. 11) (2)
Praticolella species [23 km NNW El Limon, Tamaulipas, Mexico,
Fred G. Thompson! 27 December, 1989, Lee Collection] (Fig. 12)
( 1 )

Stenotrema hirsuta (Say, 1817) [Bland, 1961: 448: Isaac Lea
Collection, 7USNM] (1)

Triodopsis fallax (Say, 1825) [Bland, 1861: 448: William Greene
Binney Collection, 7AMNH but not in Gratacap (1901);
Hubricht, 1978: two, FMNH] (3)

Triodopsis hopetonensis (Shuttleworth, 1852) [Pilsbry, 1940:
812: ANSP; Hubricht, 1978, FMNH] (2)

Triodopsis obsoleta (Pilsbry, 1894) [Hubricht, 1978: three,
FMNH] (3)

Triodopsis vulgata Pilsbry, 1940 [Reigle, 1962:36-37: Washtenaw
Co., MI, Phil Marsh(?)!, UMMZ 210162] (1)

Webbhelix multilineatus (Say, 1821) [Wetherby, 1895: 94: A.G.
Wetherby! MCZ] (1)

Xolotremafosteri (F. C. Baker, 1932) [Pilsbry, 1940: 831: W.G.
Binney! 202 Union St., Burlington, NJ (his own garden), 7AMNH,
but not in Gratacap (1901); St. Louis, MO, Frieda Schilling! 2
May, 1969, Lee Collection] N.B. NJ specimen definitely derived
from (naturalized) dextral stock. (Fig. 13) (2)

Page 10

Vol. 38, No. 4

Total: 15 genera, 23 species, about (53) specimens. Twenty
collectors; 36 specimens:

Archer, A.F 3
Baily, R.I. 1
Binney, W.G. 1
Bryant, F.W. 1
Feinberg, H.S. 1
Fluck, W.H. 2
Hubricht, L. 11
Lee, H.G. 1
Lewis, J. 1
Marsh, P. (?) 2
Mehring, A.L. 1
Pratt, W.L. 1
Schilling, F. 1
Singley, J.A. 1
Slapcinsky, J. 1
Stannage 1
Sullivan, W. 1
Thompson, F.G. 1
Webb, G.R. 1
Wetherby, A.G. 3

Abbreviations for institutional repositories mentioned above:
AMNH: American Museum of Natural History, New York.

ANSP: Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia.

FMNH: Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.

MCZ: Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University,
Cambridge, MA.

OSUM: Ohio State University Museum, Columbus, OH.

UMMZ: University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Ann Arbor.
NMNH: National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington DC.

Literature cited:

Archer, A.F. 1934. Sinistral land snails from Ann Arbor, Michigan. The
Nautilus 47(4): 148-149, April.

Baily, J.L. 1942. More sinistral gastropods The Nautilus 55(3): 102, Jan.
Binney, W.G. 1878. The terrestrial air-breathing mollusks of the United
States and the adjacent territories of North America, vol. 5. Welsh,
Bigelow and Co., Cambridge, MA. v + pp. 1-439 incl. 312 vignettes +
100 pis. [84 of vol. 5+16 originals] July. Available on-line at <http://
www. archive. org/details/terrestrialairbrO 5 abinn>.

Bland, T. 1861. Remarks on certain species of North American Helicidae,
with descriptions of new species III. Annals of the Lyceum of Natural
History, NY. 7: 420-448 + pi. 4, available on-line at <http://www.archive.
org/details/annalsoflyceumof718621yce>.

Feinberg, H.S. 1970. One more sinistral Mesodon. The Nautilus 84(1):
12-13. July.

Fluck, W.H. 1943. Abnormalities in Helix (Alabastrina) tingitiana
Pladilhe and Mesodon exoleta Binney. The Nautilus 56: 104-105. Jan.
Gould, S.J., N.D. Young, and B. Kasson, 1985. The consequences of
being different: sinistral coiling in Cerion. Evolution 39(6): 1364-1379.
Gettleman, A. 2010. Frieda Schilling (3 March 1924 - 19 January,
2010). American Conchologist 35(1): 31. March (Apr.).

Gratacap, L.P. 1901. Article XXIII. Catalogue of the Binney and Bland
Collection of terrestrial airbreathing [sz'c] mollusks of the United States,
with enumeration of types and figured specimens, and supplementary
notes. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 14: 335-403 +
6 pis. (maps). Available on-line at <http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/
bitstream/2246/1226/1/BO 14a23 ,pdf>.

Harasewych, M.G. 2006. Cerion: A web-based resource for Cerion
research and identification. National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution. World Wide Web electronic publication. URL
<http: //invertebrates. si. edu/Cerion>.

Harasewych, M.G., A.J. Baldinger, Y. Villacampa, and P. Greenhall
2007. The Cerion (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Pulmonata: Cerionidae) taxa
of Charles Johnson Maynard and their type specimens. Bulletin of the
Museum of Comparitive Zoology. 158(7): 367-527. Sept. 7.

Lewis, J. 1872. Shells of Herkimer and adjacent counties in the state
of New York. Proceedings of the Acadamy of Natural Sciences of
Philadelphia. 24: 97-107. 16 July, available on-line at <http://www.
biodiversity library, org/item/17733#99>.

Maynard, C.J. 1920. Contributions to the history of the Cerionidae,
with descriptions of many new species. Records of Walks and Talks With
Nature. Privately published, West Newton, MA. 1-242. [not seen]
NMNH, 2010. Department of Invertebrate Zoology Collections.
Searchable Database. URL<http://nhb-acsmithl.si.edu/emuwebizweb/
pages/nmnh/iz/Query.php> last accessed 27 June.

Pilsbry, H.A. 1940. Land Mollusca of North America north of Mexico
vol I part 2. Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, vi + 575-994 +
ix. 1 Aug.

Plate, L.H. 1907. Die Variabilitat und die Artbildung nach dem Prinzip
geographischer Formenketten bei den Cer/'ow-Landschnecken der
Bahama-Inseln. Archiv fur Rassen- und Gesellschafts-Biologie. 4: 433-
470, 581-614.

Poland, P. 2000. Anomalous Sinistrality. Shell-O-Gram 41(2): 1, 4-5.
May. available on-line at <http://www.jaxshells.org/mayjun00.pdf>; see
also <http: //www.j axshells. org/philp. htm>.

Pratt, W.L. 1965. Sinistral Mesodon roemeri. The Nautilus 75(4): 143-
144. April.

Rehder, H.A. [ed. by E.L. Yochelson and R.N. Germon], [1997]. ms.

The history of the Division of Mollusks in the Smithsonian Institution.
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department
of Invertebrate Zoology, Washington, D.C. iii + 1- 199 pp. + frontispiece
+ 48 pis. [not seen]

Reigle, N. 1962. Sinistral Polygyridae. The Nautilus 76(1): 36-37. July.
Schileyko, A.A. 2006. Treatise on Recent terrestrial pulmonate
molluscs 13. Helicidae, Pleurodontidae, Polygyridae, Ammonitellidae,
Oreohelicidae, Thysanophoridae. Ruthenica supplement 2: (ii) + 1765-
1906 incl. numerous text figs. May.

Tryon, G.W. Jr. 1867. Scientific intelligence. American Journal
of Conchology 3:103-106. Available on-line at <http://www.
biodiversitylibrary.org/item/30579#124>.

Uit de Weerd, D.R. 2008. Delimitation and phylogenetics of the
highly diverse land snail family Urocoptidae (Gastropoda, Pulmonata)
based on 28S rRNA sequence data: A reunion with Cerion. Journal
of Molluscan Studies 74: 317-329. Abstract available on-line at <http://
mollus.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/eyn023vl>; access to full
text requires subscription.

Wetherby, A.G. 1895. New records of reversed American Helices. The
Nautilus 9(8): 94. Dec.

N.B. All the above citations in The Nautilus can be accessed on-line at
<http: //www. archive. org/search. php? query=N autilus>.

Acknowledgements: Aside from various contributors given mention in the
text above, I must offer my gratitude to Bill Frank of Jacksonville, FL,
who is responsible for the majority of the images used in this report.

Hary G. Lee
shells@hglee.com

December 2010

American Conchologist

Page 11

Fig. 9 Dextral (L) and sinistral (R) Daedalochila avara (Say,
1818), 6mm. Collected in Jacksonville, Florida, by Harry G.
Lee, 27 July 1977, Lee collection.

Fig. 11 Dextral (L) and sinistral (R) Polygyra septemvolva Say,
1818, 9mm. Collected along the Waccasassa River, Levy Co.,
Florida, by John Slapcinsky, 19 March 2005, Lee collection.

Fig. 10 Dextral (L) and sinistral (R) Polygyra cereolus (Miihl-
feld, 1818), 8mm. Collected in Desoto Park, Manatee Co.,
Florida, by Wayne Sullivan in 1986, Sullivan collection.

Fig. 12 Dextral (L) and sinistral (R) Pralicolella species, 10mm.
Collected north of El Limon, Tamaulipas, Mexico, by Fred G.
Thompson, 27 December 1989, Lee collection.

Fig. 13 Fig. 12 Dextral (L) and sinistral (R) Xolotrema fosteri
(F.C. Baker, 1932), 17mm. Collected in St. Louis, Missouri, by
Frieda Schilling, 2 May 1969. Lee collection.

Page 12

Vol. 38, No. 4

Four Abnormal Land Shells from Israel

by Moshe Erlendur Okon

to Lilach

Shell collections rarely exhibit abnormal specimens and
only a handful of collectors focus on them. Although there is much
to learn from these aberrant forms, they are usually considered
to be less attractive or aesthetic and thus discarded in the initial
stages of the long process which brings specimens to dealers and
then to our cabinets and display cases. In reality, less than perfect
land and marine molluscs are much more common than is reflected
in our collections.

The situation in the conchological literature is no
different. In the past ten years, for example, only five articles
relating to this subject appeared in American Conchologist. One
dealt with a white color form, three with sinistral specimens, and
only one with an actual freak (co-authored by me, incidentally).

Abnormal shells can be divided into two major groups:
one of shells with repetitive patterns of abnormality, such as
albino, melanistic, or rostrated appearances, and the other of shells
with totally erratic growth patterns and deformities. The former
group seems to attract more attention and interest and certain
exemplars can also command high prices, such as the rare small
pale Harpa major from Australia or the dark rostrated cowries of
New Caledonia.

One can often find the general statement that most
freaks are probably caused by early trauma to the shell or the
animal, especially an injury to the mantle. Other reasons given
are water pollution, parasites, renewed growth after maturity
has been reached, and habitat changes. Nonetheless, I have not
been successful in obtaining literature pertaining to the general
phenomenon of abnormal growth (as opposed to descriptions of
miscellaneous aberrant shells).

This short article depicts four landshell species from
Israel, each displaying aberrant growth. Collecting for these is
especially productive during the beginning of the rainy season,
which is usually around October, and throughout the winter. The
area of the State of Israel is not a simple geographical unit and its
borders with Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, and Egypt (some
still to be decided) are somewhat arbitrary and not necessarily
reflective of natural landscape boundaries. There are, however,
land shells endemic to the wider area of Israel and some that live
in much smaller habitats within Israel.

Those readers with an interest in land shells from the
Holy Land are welcome to contact me for more information and
exchanges.

Buliminus labrosus (Olivier, 1804)

This light brown shell, averaging 30mm, belongs to
the family Buliminidae and is quite common throughout south
Lebanon, north and central Israel and Palestine, and west Jordan.
There are several subspecies or forms, varying mostly in size and
shape. It lives in limestone crevices and can often be found in the
middens of small rodents with the shell punctured in the last whorl.
A means to a feast for the rodent.

The shell pictured here began its growth in a normal
manner and at a certain point another juvenile B. labrosus attached

Buliminus labrosus (Olivier, 1804) (normal specimen (L) and
abnormal specimen (R) 27mm), found on limestone rocks near
Kesalon, Israel (col. MEO).

itself to, what was at that time, the body whorl. This probably
occurred during a rest stage between growing cycles. The attached
shell can be seen on the top, its apex pointing down and with the
last whorl punctured. The host continued growing, but as it could
not remove its guest (which died but remained attached), it coiled
around the attached shell until it reached maturity and formed its
thickened outer lip. The guest juvenile is still attached to the host,
although partly enclosed by the adult shell.

Sphincterochila fimbriata (Bourguignat, 1852) (normal speci¬
men (L) and abnormal specimen (R) 15mm), found on lime¬
stone rocks in the Judean Desert, Israel (col. MEO).

Sphincterochila fimbriata (Bourguignat, 1852)

This white shell, in the family Sphincterochilidae, is
common in the central Israel-Palestine-Jordan area. The shell
reaches 20mm and can be more or less flattened compared to the
imaged (normal) shell. In an article by Bar, seal arid or open-coiled
forms of this species are described. Sinistral specimens are also
known.

The smaller abnormal shell pictured here (15mm) is a
scalarid loosely coiled shell and even though the whorls are not
disjunct, it is certainly far from the typical form for this species.
It seems to have died before it reached maturity, lacking the last
whorl. To me, this is aesthetically the most attractive of the shells
illustrated here.

December 2010

American Conchologist

Page 13

A land shell with a similar scalarid form in the genus
Josephinella is found in Greece and is pictured in an article by
Cedric Audibert. Another example many of us are familiar with
is the scalarid form Cornu aspersa (Muller, 1774) (syn. Helix
aspersa) illustrated on page 193 of Abbott’s “Compendium of
Landsnails.”

Levantina spirplana werneri (Kobelt, 1889) 40mm, found dead
on limestone rocks near Bareqet, Israel (col. MEO).

Levantina spirplana werneri (Kobelt, 1889)

This globose cream coloured shell, in the family Helicidae,
may be a subspecies or form (authors disagree). It can reach up to
40mm, lives in a very restricted habitat, and is carinate or keeled
as a juvenile. The umbilicus of this species is totally covered. The
color pattern of the adult shell consists of five poorly defined and
interrupted brown spiral bands. The outer lip is thickened and the
aperture faces downward towards the ventrum of the shell.

The specimen pictured here reached adulthood in a
normal manner (outer lip thickened and last whorl rounded, not
carinated), but then, for some reason, resumed growth for another
eighth of a whorl. While the inner part of the shell shows continuity
in smoothness and texture, the outer part of the additional whorl
is rougher and not confluent with the original outer lip The
transitional angle is a bit sharper as well. The new outer lip is not
completely thickened.

Theba pisana (Muller, 1774) 21mm, found on bushes in Sede
Moshe, Israel (col. MEO).

Theba pisana (Muller, 1774)

This rather handsome shell is another specimen in the
Helicidae exhibiting a “double aperture.” This species, originally
from the Mediterranean area, has become widespread throughout

many areas of the world. The shell is small to medium in size (15-
22mm) and varies considerably in colour and in the pattern of the
spiral lines. The tip of the apex, however, is dark brown or black,
even on pure white specimens.

As I close this quick look at a few abnormal shells found
in Israel, I should note that the “double aperture” phenomenon is a
bit more regularly encountered and can occasionally also be seen
in marine gastropods.

Abbott, R. Tucker. 1989. Compendium of Landsnails, American
Malacologists Inc., Melbourne, pp. 240.

Audibert, Cedric. 2010. Varia: une Josephinella scalaire, Folia
Conchyliologica no. 1., online at <http://cernuelle.com/download.
php?lng=fr>.

Bar, Ze’ev. 1986. Scalaris Forms of Sphincterochila from Israel, De
Kreukel 22 no. 4., online at < http://siris-libraries.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.
j sp?uri=full=3100001 ~! 368829! 0>.

Heller, Joseph. 1993. Land Snails of the Land of Israel, Ministry of
Defense, Tel Aviv, pp. 260 (Hebrew).

Mienis, Henk. 1993. A Sinistral Specimen of Both Sphincterochila
fimbriata and Sphincterochilaprophetarum from the Northern Negev
Israel, Bulletin de la Societe Internationale de Conchyliologie 15 (3).
Okon, Moshe Erlendur & Stratmann, Dirk. 2001. Buccinum
superangulare Freak or Fact? American Conchologist vol. 29 no.3
Petney, T.N. & Huset, H.C. 1992. A Specific and Distribution List of
Landshells of Jordan Argamon No. 10: 1-14 April 1992.

Moshe Erlendur Okon

erlend@netvision.net.il P.O.Box 7803, Jerusalem, Israel

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Vol. 38, No. 4

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Page 15

December 2010

American Conchologist

PATRICIANA SHELLS

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Quarterly devoted to Malacology

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• those interested in any aspect of the Molluscs

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Associate Editors

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Page 16

Vol. 38, No. 4

CO A 2010 Convention

Tres Amigos - (left to right) Scott Robichaud, Warren Graff, & Part of the Texas Contingent - (left to right) Jean Dickman,

Don Robak. Like ducks, they were calm on top but paddled Sybil Burger, Rozelle Wilson, & Cynthia Beck,
furiouly under water.

Half a table at the welcoming party - (left to right) Jose Leal,
Harry Lee, Richard Ott, Marcus Huber & Anne Joffe.

Panel discussion on ’’What to do with your Collection” - (left
to right) Rich Goldberg, Gary Rosenberg, Adam Baldinger,
Jay Cordeiro, Elizabeth Shea, & Jose Leal.

The other half - (left to right) Anne Joffe (twice? COA Conven¬
tion Coordinator, why not?), David Joffe, Jeanne Pisor, Don
Pisor, & Chuck Owen.

Jim Brunner prepares to explain why at least two audience
members need to bid against each other for these conchs.

December 2010

American Conchologist

Page 17

Shellebration Boston

The bourse was held in the very elegant ballroom of the hotel.
Here things have slowed during the dinner hour.

Shelling at low tide on Revere Beach. Practitioners of the
’’Sanibel Stoop” were in their element.

Enjoying the final banquet are (left to right) Jack Lightbourn,
Jeanne & Don Pisor, & Cheryl & Rick Negus.

The intrepid folks who braved the beautiful sunny weather to
walk Revere Beach looking for small washed up treasures.

From the opening rendition of “Charlie on the MTA” sung by
Roger Pierce, to the interesting and varied daily programs, to the
closing banquet, Shellebration Boston was a successful conven¬
tion enjoyed by everyone who attended. The COA 2010 conven¬
tion had 164 registrants, 24 dealers, and 78 banquet attendees. The
verbal auction made $6,547, thanks to many generous donations
and some really active bidding. The silent auctions were noted by
many for the superb quality of material offered. The bourse venue
was spectacular, with lots of room and an elegant setting. Appar¬
ently there were some Boston area attendees who had not attended
previous COA conventions. The buying was “lively,” ensuring
a successful bourse for both dealers and attendees. With a lot of
hard work by club members, the Boston Malacological Club was
able to celebrate its 100th anniversary. The Boston Malacologi¬
cal Club wishes to thank their members and participants as well
as Anne Joffe, Alice Monroe, Carolyn Petrikin, and Bob & Betty
Lipe for making this event a success.

Page 18

Vol. 38, No. 4

2011 SHELL SHOWS & RELATED EVENTS

(Jan. - Jul.)

The following information is subject to change. Please verify with individual organization

Jan 15-16 SPACE COAST SEASHELL FESTIVAL,

2011 Melbourne, FL

The Melbourne Auditorium, 625 E. Hibiscus Blvd.
Jim & Bobbi Cordy, 385 Needle Blvd.

Merritt Is., FL 32953 (321) 452-5736

E-mail: corshell@earthlink.net

Jan. 22-23 BROWARD SHELL SHOW, Pompano Beach, FL
2011 Pompano Beach Recreation Center, NE 18 th Av. &

NE 6 th St.

Nancy Galdo/Richard Sedlak, 4266 Chase Ave.
Miami Beach, FL 33140-3008 (305) 531-0036

E-mail: nancygaldo@gmail.com

Apr 30 BRITISH SHELL COLLECTOR’S CLUB

2011 CONVENTION, Essex, England

Theydon Bois Community Centre, Essex

John Whicher, 44 196 336 3715

email: john@whicher.plus.com

May 14-15 XXI BELGIUM INTERNATIONAL SHELL

2011 SHOW, Antwerp, Belgium

“Extra Time” Sports Hall, Louisalei 24, Hoboken
Charles Krijnen, Burgemeester Jansenstraat 10
NL-5037 NC Tilburg, Nederland 31 (13) 463 0607
E-mail: bvc.shellshow@planet.nl
Web site: www.bvc-gloriamaris.be/beurs_e.htm

Feb. 11 -13 SARASOTA SHELL SHOW, Palmetto, FL
2011 Palmetto Convention & Civic Center, 1 Haben Blvd.

Sandy Pillow, 11017 Jasmine Circle
Bradenton, FL 34209 (941) 567-5982

E-mail: spillow6@comcast.net Cell: (810)516-6120

Feb 26-27 ST. PETERSBURG SEA SHELL SHOW,

2011 Seminole, FL

Seminole Recreation Center, 9100 113 th St. N.,
Seminole, FL

Bob & Betty Lipe, 348 Corey Avenue
St. Pete Beach, FL 33706 (727) 391-2197

E-mail: blipe@tampabay.rr.com FAX: 360-3668

Exhibit form at: http://www.stpeteshellclub.org

Jul. 13-17 CONCHOLOGISTS OF AMERICA ANNUAL

2011 CONVENTION, Cape Canaveral, FL

Radisson Resort at the Port, 870 Astronaut Boulevard
Bobbi Cordy - corshell@earthlink.net

(321)452-5736

Doris Underwood - dunderwoodl3@cfl.com

(321)622-4372

Web site: www.conchologistsofamerica.org

Jul. 2-3 TOWNSVILLE SHELL SHOW, Townsville,

2011 Queensland, Australia

Orchid Society Hall, Charles Street, Kirwan

Glenda Rowse, 19 Farrell Street

Kirwan 4814, Queensland, Australia (7) 4773-2817

Mar. 3-5 SANIBEL SHELL SHOW, Sanibel, FL

2011 Sanibel Community Center, Periwinkle Way

Irene Longley, 2823 8 th Ave.

St. James City, FL 33956-2133 (239)283-7417

E-mail: milsfrills@cs.com

Mar 5-6 XXIIeme RECONTRES INTERNATIONALES

2011 DU COQUILLAGE, Paris, France

Bourse de Commerce, 2 rue des Viarmes, 75004
Paris, France

M. & D. Wantiez, 88, Rue du General Leclerc
95210 Saint Gratien, France 33 (1) 34-17-00-39
E-mail: wantiez.mada@wanadoo.fr

Mar 10-12 MARCO ISLAND SHELL CLUB SHOW XXXI,
2011 Marco Is., FL

Marco Presbyterian Church, Elkcam Circle
Linda Shockley, 348 Colonial Avenue
Marco Island, FL 34145 (239) 394-5416

E-mail: marco-sheller@earthlink.net

Jul 9-10 KEPPEL BAY SHELL SHOW, Yeppoon,

2011 Queensland, Australia

Gus Moore Pavilion at the Yeppoon Show Ground
Jean M. Offord, 277 McDougall St.,

N. Rockhampton, Qld. 4701, Australia

(7) 4928-3509

Details AMERICAN MALACOLOGICAL SOCIETY

pending ANNUAL MEETING, Pittsburgh, PA

www.malacological.org/meetings/next.html

DONALD DAN, COA Award Chairman
6704 Overlook Drive
Ft. Myers, FL 33919 U.S.A.

Tel. Voice & Fax (239) 481-6704
E-mail: donaldan@aol.com

December 2010

American Conchologist

Page 19

Conchologists of America
Neptunea Award

The Neptunea Award (Brunner, 2000; Lipe, 2000) was established at the midyear (1999-2000) meeting of the COA Board in order
to recognize outstanding and distinguished service to conchologists and malacologists in recognition of:

1. Service to the Conchologists of America.

AND/OR

2. Service to the scientific interests of Conchologists of America.

AND/OR

3. Service to the science of Malacology as it applies to conchologists anywhere.

Although exceptions have been made, the COA Board, which serves as the jury for the Neptunea Award, has traditionally weighed
their consideration for award recipients toward (1) amateurs: those not currently pursuing a principal career involving collection,
study, or commerce involving mollusks, and (2) active members of the COA. The nomination process will close on June 1, 2011
to give the Board time for discussion and balloting. Up to three awards have been made at annual conventions, beginning with the
Houston event in 2000 (see below). Nomination(s) for the Neptunea Award may be made by any COA member and the format
is simple:

Name of nominee:

This person deserves this award because (here a somewhat detailed paragraph will suffice).

Signed.

And either snailmail or email that nomination to
Harry G. Lee

COA Neptunea Award Coordinator
4132 Ortega Forest Drive
Jacksonville, FL 32210
<shells@hglee.com>

A ballot form will be included in the March, 2011 American Conchologist , but one need not mull it over all winter: the balloting
is now open!

Previous Neptunea Award winners:

2000 (Houston, TX): Ross Gunderson, Ben and Josy Wiener, Debbie Wills

2001 (Port Canaveral, FL): Emilio Garcia, Harry Lee, Lynn Scheu

2002 (Sarasota, FL): Richard Petit, Bernard and Phyllis Pipher

2003 (Tacoma, WA) Jim and Linda Brunner, Kevin Lamprell, Doris Underwood

2004 (Tampa, FL): Bobbi Houchin

2005 (Punta Rassa, FL): Richard Forbush, Anne Joffe, William Lyons

2006 (Mobile, AL): Jack Lightbourn, Betty Lipe

2007 (Portland, OR): none given

2008 (San Antonio, TX): Bill Frank, Archie Jones

2009 (Clearwater, FL) none given

2010 (Boston, MA): none given

Brunner, L., 2000. The Neptunea Award. American Conchologist 28(3): 3. Sept.

Lipe, B[etty], 2000. Presidents Message. American Conchologist 28(4): 2. Dec.

Respectfully submitted,

Harry G. Lee
COA Director-at-Large

Page 20

Vol. 38, No. 4

A rough few months for COA members; we lost four

Cecelia Abbott (1936-
2010) was born in San
Diego, California. She
graduated from Woodbury
College in California,
and became a model and
fashion coordinator for
the Hecht Company in
Washington, D.C. She had
a love of nature and joined
the New York Shell Club,
where she met the already
noted malacologist Dr.

R. Tucker Abbott. The
following account of his
marriage proposal was
provided by longtime
COA member and
American Conchologist editor, Lynn Scheu.

My favorite Cecelia memory is a Tucker
memory too. We were staying with them for a
while, that same spring of their trip to Australia,
when Walter Sage acted as their caretaker in
Melbourne and mailed out the newly printed
copies of the long awaited Standard Catalog of
Seashells while they were away. We went beach
walking, the day before they left. Cecelia and
I wandered off together hunting angel wings in
the muck. She began telling me little stories
about Tucker. She noted that the angel wings
always reminded her of bridal finery, all the lace
and tucks and pleatings. Then she asked if she’d
ever told me about Tucker’s proposal. (I bet
there are others of you out there that have heard
this! She did love a good story as much as he
did.) She said he left a note on her desk one day,
asking her to marry him, and then added another
note pleading, “Please type!” Then she did
that uproarious laugh of hers and said, “Don’t
you think that’s a scream? Ever the author, he
wanted a secretary-typist too.” And she took the
“job.”

Cecelia sent the “scrunched and worn-looking” “Please type”
note to Lynn, who still has it. Cecelia supported Tucker’s efforts
in malacology and was an avid collector as well. She traveled
around the world with Tucker and after his death she continued her
collecting and added an interest in sea beans, becoming a member
of the Sea Bean Society. All who knew her will remember her
grace and ever present humor.

Mary Cecilia Flentz (1916 - 2010) lived in Carlsbad, California.
She was married to John Flentz and had a long-time interest
in shells and conchology. John and Mary lived in a number of
California towns over the years and saw the state drastically
change as it grew. Living in Carlsbad and walking the southern
California beaches was a natural for somene interested in shells.

Gertrude
Hildebrandt Moller
(1920 - 2010) was

bom in Germany
and immigrated
to Chicago with
her family when
she was nine. She
studied voice and
was an accomplished
coloratura soprano,
singing with the
Chicago Fine Arts
Company. She

moved to New York
when she was 22
and sang with the
USO throughout the
war years. She had a minor part on Broadway, but her budding
Broadway career was cut short when she met and Married Knud
Moller, a marine engineer from Denmark. They moved to
Jacksonville, Florida, in 1948 where Knud had an engineering
job with a ship building company. In 1955 Knud’s job required
them to move to the Bahamas, specifically Eleuthera. Readers
of this magazine know this locale is somewhat of a sheller’s
paradise, as it certainly was in 1955. Gertrude often said she was
hooked, “When I picked up that very first shell...” She became
an serious collector. They moved back to Jacksonville in 1957
and when a local paper ran a story of her rather extensive shell
collection in 1959, she got calls from other shell collectors in the
Jacksonville area. This led to an initial gathering at her house
and the establishment of the Jacksonville Shell Club. Harry Lee,
also a long-time member of the Jacksonville Shell Club said,
“...the shelling world lost an abiding spirit. Among many other
contributions to popular conchology, Gertie was the founder of the
Jacksonville Shell Club and part of the mortar that held it together
for decades.” Gertrude was active with Pine Castle, a center for
children with development disabilities.

Betty Jean Piech (1919 - 2010) was born and grew up in New
Jersey. She graduated from Douglass Women’s College (Rutgers
University) and married Frank Piech in 1947. They moved to
Wilmington, Delaware, were she worked as a home-maker and
then went back to school to obtain a Library Science Degree.
Betty worked as a librarian for many years before she retired. In
the early 1960s the family started a tradition of vacationing on

December 2010

American Conchologist

Page 21

Sanibel Island, Florida.

Another rather well-
known sheller’s

paradise. Of course, in
those days it was a true
island with access by
ferry. Betty’s interest
in shells grew and in the
1970s she became quite
involved with the newly
established Delaware
Museum of Natural
History, especially its
malacology department.

Her interest in shells
took her around the
world with shelling
stops at such places as:

Africa, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Fiji, French Polynesia,
the Philippines, Samoa, and South America. Members of COA
benefitted from these trips as Betty gave quite a few talks on
her experiences around the world. Alan Gettleman provided the
following.

Betty Jean was always a bright spirit and fun to
know. At one COA convention, I entered the
lecture hall after the program had started and in
the darkened room I saw pictures on the screen,
heard a person speaking, but there was no one
at the podium. Later I saw there was a person,

Betty Jean, who was completely blocked by the
height of the podium. Her programs for her far-
flung trips were always wonderful, emphasizing
the politeness of the need to learn and use the
word for “Thank You” in every native culture she
visited. I served with her on a COA committee
and told her that I could always recognize her in
a group photograph as she would always be ‘the
tall one’ in the picture. She delighted in that title
and in a written note to Tim Pearce, introducing
me, said I was the one who gave her that epithet
and that she even had a shirt made with ‘the tall
one’ on it.

Betty Jean was active in COA and one of the early members of
Conch-L, the COA list serve. In the mid to late 1990s Conch-L
membership was much lower than today and Betty Jean was a
major contributor. Her presence on Conch-L was a delight. While
interested and knowledgeable about many aspects of conchology,
Betty Jean was especially interested in the Ranellidae. She is the
author of “Ranellidae and Personidae: A Classification of Recent
Species,” published in 1998.

THOUGHTS FROM A SHELL
COLLECTOR TO HER FAMILY AND
FRIENDS

I love a beach where seabirds cry,

Where the shining water meets the sky.

Where one can look for shells and things,

And gather the gifts that each tide brings.

I like to walk upon the sand,

Between the ocean and the land.

To breathe the wonderful salty air,

And feel the breeze blow through my hair.

I enjoy the pleasure these things bring,

They calm my mind and make my heart sing.

And even when I can’t be there,

I always remember what the beach had to share.

And if you happen to see a shell,

I hope this thought you’ll remember well.

As I have prized each beautiful treasure,

So I value my family and friends in even greater measure.

And when the times comes I’m no longer here,

Do not think I have left you, never fear.

Just picture me happy on some distant shore
Picking up lovely things just as before.

For I will not have died, nor will I sleep;

I will see you again, so please do not weep,

I’11 just continue happy in His peace and care
Until the time comes when you join me there.

I love each and every one of you.

Betty Jean Piech
September3, 1995

Distorsio jenniernestae Emerson & Piech, 1992

Page 22

Vol. 38, No. 4

Back to the Gulf of Aqaba:

The search for rare shells of the Red Sea

By Moti Kovalis

The end of the winter is a good time to continue
exploration dives in the Red Sea [Ed: see the previous article about
the Gulf of Aqaba in vol. 37, no. 4, p. 4-6], The weather is good
(not hot) and the water is crystal clear. There are usually a number
of mollusk species that seem to emerge after winter and there is
definitely more activity underwater. It is always hard to explain
why certain species suddenly appear after many years of absence,
or disappear after years of presence, or appear in new localities.
Common cowries such as Cypraea staphylaea Linneaus, 1758 or
Cypraeapunctata Linneaus, 1771, have been absent from this area
for many years. There are not even records of dead specimens.
Despite the temptation to blame weather, pollution, climate
change, etc., there is no current scientifically based explanation for
this phenomenon. Many mollusk species seem to come and go in a
wave effect, for reasons still unclear. Only Mother Nature knows,
and she is not talking.

Our plan for this exploration is to dive at three different
locations. The first location is the northern point in the Gulf, near
the border with Jordan. This location is interesting because it was
for many years a battlefield: a long struggle between a private
fish farm that placed fish cages in the sea and various “green”
organizations that opposed this operation. After many years
the Israeli court decided to remove the fish farm. The “green”
organizations claim that the operation had a devastating effect
on the original habitat as well as harming marine life throughout
the Gulf. The fish farm claims the opposite. Both parties have
stacks of supporting research, but in the end the cages are gone.
From previous dives in the area some years ago, I remember many
metal barrels and other metal structures, ropes, and tiers. It will
be interesting to see what is left. The cages were placed at a depth
of 25 meters; it will be a long swim. The spot will be hard to
find since orientation under the water will be by compass only.
The area is a no swimming zone (surface swimming). We have
decided to dive during the day because we need better visibility
to search for the correct spot and because this area is close to the
Jordanian border and we really would not want to alarm the navy
- of either country.

The swim to the area is without event, at a straight
southeast direction from our entry point. In this northern area of
the Gulf the bottom slopes downward more gradually than it does
off the southern beaches. After 15 minutes we got to the spot. To
my surprise the surrounding sea was cleaner than I remembered
from two years ago. All that was left of the fish farm operation was
an artificial reef probably planted to investigate the influence of
the cages on the local marine life. The artificial reef is built from
five- or six-meter long plastic pipes connected together to form a
pyramid-shaped structure. The entire structure is surrounded by
all kinds of fish (Fig. 1). What I am looking for is, of course, at the
bottom of the structure where my target creatures are more likely
to be found. Immediately I see a dead Laevichlamys superficialis
(Forsskal, 1775) with both valves still attached. There are other

Fig. 1 (above) Remnants of the fish farm operation, now a
home for many brightly colored fish that swim around and in
the lattice-work pipes.

Fig. 2 (below) Interior view of one of the pipes with our lobster
resident.

scattered dead bivalves, so it seems there is an octopus or other
predator in this area. The various valves are not cracked or broken,
so this may be a clue as to the identity of the predator. It is probably
not an octopus. A look at the upper level pipes solves the mystery.
Here we find a large lobster eating a pecten and guarding other
bivalves (Fig. 2). In the picture it is difficult to see his unfriendly
visage as he guards his a soon-to-be eaten Glycymeris livida
(Reeve, 1843). I searched in vain for a living pecten hidden in the
algae on this structure. I wanted to photograph a specimen in situ ,
but the lobster is certainly the better sheller, as I was unable to find
a single live specimen. A further look in other pipes turned up lots

December 2010

American Conchologist

Page 23

Fig. 3 (above) Looking deeper into the pipe we found more fish
and a large Cypraea ( Mauritia ) arabica gray ana.

Fig. 4 (below) The Homalocantha anatomica elatensis I spotted,
despite its rather effective camouflage.

Fig. 5 A small brightly colored and nicely patterned Conus
0 Cylinder ) textile , usually a shallow-water dweller.

Fig. 6 This Cypraea ( Luria ) pulchra sinaiensis certainly is not
well camouflaged. With its mantle retracted it really stands
out in the dive light.

of colorful fish and a large Cypraea {Mauritia) arabica grayana
Schilder, 1930, attached to a side panel (Fig. 3). It had completely
withdrawn its mantle and was very easy to spot. Not far away
I found another one, but in general it seems there are far more
bivalves than gastropods in this area. The pipe structure is covered
with large numbers of Chama pacifica Broderip, 1834. It is hard
to identify them with the thick layer of algae covering everything.
It was time to leave this area and rest up in preparation for our first
night dive.

The night dive site is south of an oil terminal. The site
is named the “the missile ship” because of a wrecked missile ship
lying at 30 meters. The ship was one of five bought in Cherbourg,
France, for the Israeli Navy. During the French military embargo
after the 1967 Six-Day War, they were smuggled out at Christmas
Eve. Today the ship is a diving attraction. Our dive is planned
for a depth of 25 meters. In this particular location the descent
begins immediately. At the bottom the corals are very dense and
beautiful. Despite this, most of the dive is without any standout
mollusk finds. Even digging in the sand fails to turn up the
expected Mitridae and Terebridae. I do, however, spot a well-
hidden Homalocantha anatomica elatensis Heiman & Mienis,
2009 (Fig. 4). It is amazing how well it is camouflaged. It is
very hard to differentiate from the rock substrate. I only spot it
because it sports a new white whorl, not yet algae covered. After
a few minutes I see among the rocks a small Conus {Cylinder )
textile Linnaeus, 1758 (Fig. 5). What is it doing at this depth? It
is usually a shallow water dweller in the Gulf of Aqaba.

As always the dive computer spoils all the fun and
reminds us it is time to leave. On the way back to shore we find
the surprise of the dive. At around 18 meters is a beautiful and rare
Cypraea {Luria) pulchra sinaiensis Heiman & Mienis, 2000 (Fig.
6). Strangely, like the C. arabica grayana , it also has the mantle
retracted. Unfortunately I don’t have time to get a really good
photo.

On our last morning we rush to exchange our diving
tanks. Our dive will be in a restricted area near a shopping mall.
This means we need to get in the water early, before the tourists

Page 24

Vol. 38, No. 4

Fig. 7 (above) Cypraea ( Bistolida ) erythraeensis , a rare species
in this part of the Gulf of Aqaba and the first cowrie we have
seen on this dive with an extended mantle.

Fig. 8 (below) A well camouflaged Spondylus smytheae , still an
exciting find this far north in the Gulf of Aqaba.

line the beach and hit the water with their jet skis. The depth will
be 30-35 meters, so it will be a short dive. Two minutes into the
dive, before the real descent phase, I spot Cypraea (Bistolida)
erythraeensis Sowerby, 1837, a rare species in this part of the Gulf
of Aqaba (Fig. 7). Finally we have found a cowrie with full mantle
extension. A light touch of my finger exposes the distinguishing
red blotches on its dorsum. In the south, along the beaches of
Sinai, it is not a rare sight, but it is seldom seen this far north. Nice
start. The swim to 35 meters is fast. At the end of the dense reef
on one of the rocks I can see Spondylus smytheae Lamprell, 1998
(Fig. 8). This was a rare species in the Gulf, but has become more
common recently. There was not much to find at this depth, so
we head back to shallower waters. At night in the shallow water
there are many specimens of both Cerithium adansoni (Bruguiere,
1792) and Fusinus polygonoides (Lamarck, 1822). During the
day, however, all that is evident are tracks in the sand. As we finish
off our third and final dive I attempt to guess which species made
which track in the sand.

Our winter dive is now over and we pack up to depart this
interesting area. We will return in May to some new dive sites to
see what treasures await us in the Gulf of Aqaba. In the meantime
we have specimens to clean and photographs to go through looking
for the few that best represent our explorations of this relatively
unknown part of the world.

By Moti Kovalis
koko61 @gmail. com

Calendar membership (Jan - Dec) = £25 (USA)
Postal surcharges: + $5 for USA first class,
Canada & Mexico + $5, other nations + $15

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Saturday, January 22, 2011 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
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December 2010

American Conchologist

Page 25

First Modern Shell Show in China

as reported by Robert Janowsky

On the 16th and 17th of October
2010, a group of shell collectors gathered
in Beijing, China, for the first, of what
is hoped to be an annual, shell show in
China. These pictures were taken by Fan
Zhang and forwarded by Wu Jingyu, a
friend of Bob Janowsky. From the images
you can see they made a good start with
a nice selection of both marine and land
shells. Attendance figures are unknown,
but it appears that those who did attend
were quite interested. Due primarily to
the Internet and online auctions, there are
several shell dealers in China who now
regularly supply worldwide collectors.
Hopefully this interest will continue.

Above: The participants in the first shell show in China, from
left to right, bottom to top: Wei Hu, Yang Wang, unknown,
Xiaoguang Li, Jin Chen, Liqian Zhou, Fan Zhang, Fan Zhang
[yes, two], Xin Deng, Youning Wang, Qicong Li, unknown,
Qing Feng, Yifeng Lu, Peng Wei, Xin Qian, Huabing Liang,
unknown, Yang Wu, Hanchen Wang unknown, Junyi Du.
Photos are offered by Fan Zhang.

Below: The room begins to get a bit crowded as the day goes
on. Hopefully there are some young future shellers there.

Above: Overhead view showing the tables with a few early visi¬
tors.

Below: One of the tables with a nice selection of shells.

Page 26

Vol. 38, No. 4

Conus recurvus Broderip, 1833: One Mo’ Time

By J. M. Inchaustegui

1. Conus recurvus Broderip, 1833, (left) Manzanillo, Mexico, 48mm, Au¬
gust 1975, col. Theresa Stelzig; (right) Guaymas, Mexico, 49mm, Novem¬
ber 1968, col. Lucia Leing.

2. Conus regularis Sowerby, 1833, (left) San Carlos, Mexico, 46mm, Jan¬
uary 1971, col. Leola Glass; (right) Agua Verde, Mexico, 47mm, Novem¬
ber 1975, col. unk.

3. Conus scalaris Valenciennes, 1932, Baja California, Mexico, 60mm,
March 2009, col. unk.

In a recent article that appeared in the Triton ,
the Epitonium , and the American Conchologist , I
discussed some shells I obtained from the Houston
Conchology Society that had been donated to the Club
by the Houston Museum of Natural Science. In the
article that appeared in the American Conchologist Vol.

38, No.3, September, 2010, Mr. Tom Eichhorst added a
footnote that read, “ Conus recurvus Broderip, 1833, is
apparently no longer valid as the type does not match
shells of that name, the correct name is probably Conus
(Kohniconus) emarginatus Reeve, 1844.”

This made me ponder so I checked my literature
to see what I could find. In Abbott’s “American
Seashells” he shows Conus recurvus Broderip, 1833,
as valid with synonyms Conus scriptus Dali, 1910, and
Conus magdanelensis Bartsch and Rehder, 1939. These
synonyms only showed that this cone was probably
very variable.

So next I checked Keen’s “Sea Shells of
Tropical West America” Second Edition, which
showed C. recurvus Broderip, 1833, to be valid with
synonyms: Conus incurvus Sowerby, 1833; Conus
emarginatus Reeve, 1844; Conus scariphus Dali, 1910;
and then it showed that Conus regularis Sowerby,

1833, was valid with several synonyms: Conus syriacus
Sowerby, 1833; Conus angulatus A. Adams, 1854;

Conus magdalenensis Bartsch & Rehder, 1939; Conus
monilifer Broderip, 1833; Conus gradatus gradatus
Wood, 1828; Conus gradatus thaanumi Schwengel,

1955; and Conus recurvus helenae Schwengel, 1955.

This did not leave me with any positive thoughts
about any of the above so I then contacted one of my
shell collecting friends that has an extensive collection
and a vast library of literature to ask his opinion of this
footnote and he was kind enough to e-mail me two
scanned paragraphs of “A Chronological Taxonomy of
Conus, 1758-1840,” which was published in 1992 by Dr. Alan J.
Kohn and reads as follows (pg. 246): “Although Nybakken (1970)
reported the radulas of C. recurvus and C. regularis to differ
strikingly, it is not clear from his illustrations of shells (Nybakken,
1970: figs. 35-39 that his concept of C. recurvus is consistent
with the specimen (Fig. 36). Hanna (1963:30) suggested that
“C. regularis is not very distinct and intergrades with gradatus,
scalaris, and recurvus. Pending further study of this difficult
complex, I tentatively conclude that C. recurvus Broderip 24
May, 1833, is a junior synonym of C. regularis Sowerby, 17 May,
1833.” Later on Kohn continues (Pg. 274): “The result of this is
that C. arcuatus Gray, 1839, is a junior primary homonym but not
a synonym of C. arcuatus Broderip and Sowerby, 1829. Because
the former species is valid, it takes the next available name applied
to the taxon. Reeve (1844: pi.43, sp. 232) renamed C. arcuatus
Gray as C. emarginatus. I thus conclude that C. arcuatus Gray,
1839, a junior primary homonym but not a synonym of C. arcuatus
Broderip and Sowerby, 1829, is C. emarginatus Reeve, 1844.”

In view of all of the above, I will change my C. recurvus
labels to “ Conus regularis Sowerby, 1833” but don’t take my word
for this since all of this is in flux and may change any day. Do
your own research and proceed accordingly. The accompanying
photograph may or may not shed light on this. Photo by the author.

References:

Abbott, R. Tucker. 1974. American Seashells. Van Nostrand Reinhold,
Ltd., New York, 663 pgs.

Keen, A. Myra. 1971. Sea Shells of Tropical West America, Standord
University Press, California, 1064 pgs.

Kohn, A.J. 1992. A Chronological Taxonomy of Conus, 1758-1840.
Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington & London, 315 pgs. 26 pis.

J.M. Inchaustegui
joaquininc@aol.com

December 2010

American Conchologist

Page 27

The rise and fall of “Conus recurvus Broderip 1833”

By Bruce Neville

In an article in the September 2010 issue of American
Conchologist , J.M. Inchaustegui identified two figured cone
specimens from western Mexico as “ Conus recurvus Broderip
1833.” Taking a second look at the shells in Mr. Inchaustegui’s
illustrations, I tentatively identify them as Conus regularis
(Sowerby I 1833). The two species, “C. recurvus” and C.
regularis , are not as easily separated as one might think, at least on
conchological characters.

Our long-suffering Editor’s “innocent” note attached to
Mr. Inchaustegui’s article regarding the taxonomic status of “C.
recurvus ” has led to some interesting discussions. When I (Neville
2010) reviewed Tucker and Tenorio’s “ Systematic classification of
Recent and fossil conoidean gastropods” (2009), I was puzzled
that the shell that has long been called “ Conus recurvus Broderip
1833” was not included, and finally found it under the name
Kohniconus emarginatus (Reeve 1844), type species of the genus
Kohniconus Tucker and Tenorio 2009. I was surprised that such a
longstanding name for such a well-known shell as Conus recurvus
could have been replaced, but they did not discuss the reason(s)
for the change (that not being the function of their work), so I did
some research into the matter. I did not have space in that review
to go into the nomenclatural legalities, but, since it has come up
again, I’ve decided to go into more detail on the story. Here goes.

G.B. Sowerby I described and figured Conus regularis
in the Conchological Illustrations ; that portion of the Illustrations
was issued 17 May 1833. W.J. Broderip described Conus recurvus
in Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London without
illustration; that part of the Proceedings was issued 24 May 1833,
or one week after Sowerby’s name. [The article is attributed to
“Broderip and Sowerby,” but individual names are credited to one
or the other with initials.] The primary types of Conus regularis
Sowerby “II” [sic] 17 May 1833 and Conus recurvus “Broderip
and Sowerby” [sic] 24 May 1833 are illustrated in the Type Gallery
of the Conus Biodiversity Website (Kohn & Anderson, n.d.) and
obviously belong to the same, highly variable species (Figs. 1 & 2,
respectively).

In his review of the Eastern Pacific Conus , Hanna (1963)
figured a “hypotype” (a term without definition or standing in the
International Code of Zoological Nomenclature) of Conus recurvus
Broderip 1833. Unfortunately, this specimen was not conspecific
with Broderip’s type. Apparently Keen (1971), Abbott (1974),
and many others took the specimen illustrated to represent “ Conus
recurvus Broderip 1833,” and the name was widely applied to the
species illustrated by Hanna. Walls ([1979]) was perhaps the first
to recognize that the holotype of Conus recurvus Broderip 1833
did not represent the species to which the name was then applied,
but chose not to open that particular can of worms.

In 1839, J.E. Gray illustrated a shell as “ Conus arcuatus
Broderip and Sowerby 1829.” Reeve recognized that Gray’s
illustration was not the C. arcuatus of Broderip and Sowerby
(Fig. 3) and so gave it the replacement name Conus emarginatus
in his Conchologia Iconica in 1844. Coomans, Moolenbeek, and
Wils (1981), in reviewing the status of the name Conus arcuatus
Gray 1839, realized that the types of C. recurvus and C. regularis

Fig. 1 (above) Conus regularis G.B. Sowerby II [sic], 1833,
representation of lectotype, Sowerby (1833: pt. 29, fig. 29), no
type locality or size provided, photo by Alan J. Kohn, Conus
Biodiversity Website, with permission, http://biology.burke.
washington.edu/conus

Fig. 2 (below) Conus recurvus Broderip & Sowerby [sic], 1833,
lectotype, British Museum of Natural History, 52mm, type
locality: Monte Christi, Colombia, photo by Alan J. Kohn,
Conus Biodiversity Website, with permission, http://biology.
burke.washington.edu/conus

Page 28

Vol. 38, No. 4

Fig. 3 Conus arcuatus Broderip & Sowerby, 1829, neotype,
British Museum of Natural History, 42.5mm, type locality:
near Mazatlan, Mexico, photo by Alan J. Kohn, Conus Bio¬
diversity Website, with permission, http://biology.burke.wash-
ington.edu/conus

represented the same species and that the next available name for
the “shell formerly known as recurvus ” was thus C. emarginatus
Reeve 1844, but this change was not picked up in the broader
literature. Tucker and Tenorio, with their encyclopedic knowledge
of cone taxonomy, were aware of the change and used it correctly
in their recent systematic work. This is the “shell formerly known
as recurvus ” and is the first available name for that species.

There are two “take home” lessons from this story:

1. Always refer to (trusted) types wherever possible, when making
identifications, and

2. None of this should detract from the interesting observation
reported by Mr. Inchaustegui!

Bmce Neville
BN eville@tamu. edu

Literature cited:

Abbott, R. T. 1974. American seashells: the marine Mollusca of the
Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America (2nd ed.). New York: Van
Nostrand Reinhold.

Broderip, W. J., and Sowerby, G. B., I. 1829. Observations on new or
interesting Mollusca contained, for the most part, in the Museum of the
Zoological Society. Zoological Journal, 4, 359-379.

Broderip, W. J., and Sowerby, G. B., I. 1833. [The collection of Shells
formed by Mr. Cuming on the western coast of South America, and among
the islands of the South Pacific Ocean], Proceedings of the Zoological
Society of London, 7(4), 52-56.

Coomans, H. E., Moolenbeek, R. G., & Wils, E. 1981. Alphabetical
revision of the (sub)species in recent Conidae. 4. aphrodite to azona with
the description of Conus arenatus bizona, nov. subspecies. Basteria, 45,
3-55.

Gray, J. E. 1839. Molluscous animals, and their shells. In Beechey,
F.W., ed. (1839). The zoology of Captain Beechey’s voyage. London:
H.G. Bohn.

Hanna, G. D. 1963. West American mollusks of the genus Conus, II.
Occasional papers of the California Academy of Sciences, no. 35, 1-103.
Inchaustegui, J. M. 2010. Are those Mexican slippers? American
conchologist, 38(3), 26.

Keen, A. M. 1971. Sea shells of tropical west America: marine mollusks
from Baja California to Peru (2nd ed.). Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ.
Pr.

Kohn, A. J., & Anderson, T. (n.d.). The Conus biodiversity website:
Type Gallery. Retrieved 3 November 2010, from http://biology.burke.
washington.edu/conus/gallery/index.php.

Neville, B. 2010. Systematic classification of Recent and fossil Conoidean
gastropods, by John K. Tucker and Manuel J. Tenorio, ConchBooks, 2009:
a review, [book review ]. American conchologist, 55(1), 12-14.

Reeve, L. A. 1844, in 1843-1878. The genus Conus. In L. A. Reeve
(Ed.), Conchologia iconica: or, Illustrations of the shells of molluscous
animals. London: L. Reeve & Co.

Sowerby, G. B., I. 1833. Part 29, Conus. In Sowerby, G.B., II. (1832-
1841). The Conchological Illustrations, or Coloured Figures of all the
hitherto unfigured recent shells ....

Tucker, J. K., & Tenorio, M. J. 2009. Systematic classification of Recent
andfossil conoidean gastropods with keys to the genera of cone shells (1 st
ed.). Hackenheim, Germany: ConchBooks.

Walls, J. G. [1979]. Cone shells: a synopsis of the living Conidae.
Neptune City, N.J.: T.F.H. Publications.

Fig. 4 (added) These are shells from the editor’s collection
that have labels stating they are Conus recurvus (no. 3), Conus
regularis (no. 1 & 5), and Conus gradatus (no. 2 & 4). Applying
what we now know(?), they are: 1. Conus regularis 45mm, Gulf
of California; 2. Conus regularis 52mm, Algodones, Mexico.
3. Conus emarginatus (the former C. recurvus of authors)
58mm, Pacific Panama; 4. Conus regularis 40mm, San Carlos,
Mexico; and 5. Conus regularis 51mm, Gulf of California.
The “actual” Conus recurvus (based on the type specimen as
opposed to authors accounts) is a synonym of Conus regularis ,
while the name Conus recurvus was incorrectly applied to
Conus emarginatus. All clear?

December 2010

American Conchologist

Page 29

An Eleutheran Adventure:

My First Live Shell Collecting Trip

Amelia Ann Dick (Amy)

Sunday, May 23, 2010

A small and diligent group of shell
enthusiasts, George and Amy Dick, Jim and Bobbi
Cordy, Ellen Bulger, Judy Herman, and Beverly
Snyder were eager for our journey to begin. We
all converged at Twin Air Calypso, a small charter
and cargo airlines in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for
a short afternoon flight to Rock Sound, Eleuthera,

Bahamas. While in the air I observed the beautiful
clear, calm, turquoise blue water of the Caribbean
Sea and my heart filled with a sense of adventure
and the excitement of discovery. Upon arrival, we
quickly loaded the rental cars and were off to our
cottages in the small picturesque town of Tarpum
Bay (Fig. 1). We were greeted by a kaleidoscope
of cheerful brightly painted houses and shutters in
every color imaginable. We were finally there and
on “Island Time.” After filling the fridge/freezer
with a week’s worth of meals, we hastily donned
our skins to take advantage of late afternoon, bright sun, and
snorkeling at a place located four miles north referred to as Xeno
Beach.

Xeno Beach is a dream come true for beach collectors.
A variety of species were available for the picking. All that was
required was a sharp eye, a good back, and a container to place
all that “loot.” A very small list of beach finds included limpets,
bubbles, nerites, mussels, clams, cones, tellins, ceriths, tegulas,
and those beautiful, although fragile, green and white sea urchin
tests.

Immediately upon entering the water for my first
Eleutheran snorkeling adventure, I found a dead Atlantic partridge
tun ( Tonna maculosa (Dillwyn, 1817)) in less than a foot of water
on rocks. Ellen found a dead typhis triangularis ( Tripterotyphis
triangularis (A. Adams, 1855)). Jim fared even better with a live
T. triangularis and Tom McGinty’s murex {Murexiella mcgintyi
(M. Smith, 1938)). This was an exciting beginning.

Fig. 1 Street scene from our cottage on Tarpum Bay. It is just as tranquil
gorgeous as it looks here.

Monday, May 24, 2010

The start of our first full day began with Bobbi serving
her delicious almond coffee cake for breakfast, an Eleuthran
tradition with the Cordys. After packing lunches we were off on
our morning excursion to Half Sound on the east side of the island.
We observed a multitude of empty queen conch shells that had
been strewn about like litter. This beach was definitely popular
with Bahamians as a collecting and cleaning spot for what is a
major staple of their diet. The place was so very quiet and still and
a small sparkling crystal-clear stream emptied into the Sound. The
water temperature was approximately 77-78°F. The snorkelers
encountered grassy bottoms with intermittent sand patches. We
spotted many juvenile queen conchs, called pink rollers. They
were photographed, but none were taken. Jim and Ellen snorkeled

Fig. 2 "Traveling incognito," Turbinella angulata. Photo by
Ellen Bulger

further out and down the shore. Jim took an adult West Indian
chank ( Turbinella angulata (Lightfoot, 1786)) (Fig. 2) and a king
helmet ( Cassis tuberosa (Linnaeus, 1758)). Ellen turned over a
sponge on turtle grass in 2 !4 feet of water and found a beautiful live
Atlantic yellow cowrie ( Erosaria acicularis Gmelin, 1791) (Fig.
3). I found two amber pen shells in sand {Pinna carnea Gmelin,

Page 30

Vol. 38, No. 4

Fig. 3 Erosaria acicularis in situ. Photo by Ellen Bulger.

1791). After several hours of snorkeling, beach combing, and
lunch, we were off again for another totally different destination.

We filled our afternoon with the delights of Islandica
Beach, a.k.a. Larry’s Beach, on the Atlantic Ocean. It was quite
windy and the water was very choppy. Large coral heads make
up the reef with a myriad of brightly colored fish and marine life.
Jim found two adult queen conchs ( Strombus gigas Linnaeus,
1758). No pearls. Ellen found a rams horn shell (Spirilla spirilla
(Linnaeus, 1758)) on the beach at the high tide mark. It is the
interior structural support of a deep water squid-like cephalopod
and functions as a buoyancy device. The group found many
lovely sunrise tellins ( Tellina radiata Linnaeus, 1758), turkey
wing arks {Area zebra (Swainson, 1833)), red brown arks
{Barbatia cancellaris (Lamarck, 1819)), speckled tellins {Tellina
listen Roding, 1798), and common Atlantic marginellas {Prunum
apicinum (Menke, 1828)). Four-toothed nerites {Nerita versicolor
Gmelin, 1791) were observed moving about intertidal rocks.

As soon as we got back to the cottage, Ellen crossed
the street, went down some steps leading to a small beach, and
stepped into Tarpum Bay. She hit “pay dirt” and came back with a
beautiful live deep-colored orange lace murex {Chicoreus florifer
(Reeve, 1846)). She also brought back apple murex {Chicoreus
pomum (Gmelin, 1791)). Time well spent!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Today our group split up and went to two locations. Jim,
George, and Ellen headed for Winding Bay. The rest of us visited
Palmetto Point Salt Pond. Both of these sites offered specific shell
takes. Winding Bay did not disappoint. Jim found what he went
looking for taking four Conus abbotti Clench, 1942. The largest
was approximately 33mm. He also found a live measle cowrie
{Macrocypraea zebra (Linnaeus, 1758)) and the Atlantic Triton’s
trumpet {Charonia variegata (Lamarck, 1816)). Ellen found
a helmet that may possibly be a hybrid between a flame helmet
{Cassis flammea (Linnaeus, 1758)) and a king helmet {Cassis
tuberosa ). George found one S. spirula at the high tide mark on
the beach.

My group started off with a little sightseeing and shopping
at Governor’s Harbor. We then headed for a special place called

Fig. 4 Volvarina jimeordyi in situ, along with an unidentified
chiton and a couple of mystery gastropods. Photo by Ellen
Bulger.

Palmetto Point Salt Pond. On the “hit list” for this excursion was
the little black murex Chicoreus dunni Petuch, 1979. This murex
is endemic to this location only and I took most of mine in less than
three feet of water on rocks and silty bottom. There was certainly
no trouble finding them. Another lovely day in paradise!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Today we visit a saltwater lake named Sweetings Pond.
The main objective is to collect Volvarina jimeordyi Cossignani,
2007 (Fig. 4). This tiny margin is endemic to this pond only and Jim
and George took many from under rocks. True tulips {Fasciolaria
tulipa (Linnaeus, 1758)) were everywhere! The ones found here
are mostly dark shades of brown and light tan. They were taken
in less than three to four feet of water on sand and in grassy spots.
George and Ellen observed an octopus hiding amongst rocks (Fig.
5). Ellen’s description is as follows “chromatophore color change
from cupcake pink frosting, shifting to deep salmon, to pale lime
green, almost fluorescent with differing patterns.” George and
I were thrilled to see two seahorses. Ellen found two pregnant
males. Mahogany-and-yellow colored egg cockles {Laevicardium
laevigatum (Linnaeus, 1758)) were found by everyone.

After our picnic lunch, we drove north on Queen’s
Highway to see the Glass Window Bridge. This is a unique place
where one can observe the Caribbean Sea on one side of the bridge
and the Atlantic Ocean on the other with one glance. My first
observation was the extreme differences between the two bodies
of water. The Caribbean quite peaceful and pale blue, the Atlantic
dark blue and extremely rough, with powerful waves crashing high
onto rocks. We found time for a little shopping on our way back
home and I was already thinking about tomorrow.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Millar’s Beach! Goodies in and out of the water. A shell
collector’s paradise. As soon as I walked on the beach, I spied a
beautiful dead and clean flame helmet in excellent condition. It
had washed up in weed drift at the wrack line. Also, there were
many juvenile queen conchs, mostly dead and crabbed amongst

December 2010

American Conchologist

Page 31

and Ellen chose to snorkel and swim some of the
shoreline and were dropped off nearly two miles
away from our destination. After almost three hours
we spotted them making their way down the beach
towards us. Jim took some lace murex. Ellen found
seven carrier shells ( Xenophora conchyliophora
(Born, 1780)), with five being live takes and two
dead. Xenos are her favorite shells. George and I
took West Indian chanks, which were collected on
sand in approximately eight to ten feet of water (Fig.
6). It was so much fun bringing them up as they are
a big and heavy shell with the most interesting black
animal inside. We kept the three largest adults and
put the others back in to live and reproduce. The
very strange chank egg cases somewhat resembled
long chains of those no-spill plastic lids used to
cover drinking cups. They were attached to what
I believe was soft coral known as the black sea
rod. We also collected milk conchs ( Strombus
costatus Gmelin, 1791). I got a kick out of seeing
the attractive animal responsible for making such an
Fig. 5 Octopus species. Photo by Ellen Bulger. exquisite work of art. Wow, great shell booty!

Fig. 6 West Indian chank shells, Turbinella angulata.

the weed. After walking much of the beach, I
discovered a perfect dead and clean lamellose
wentletrap {Epitonium lamellosum (Lamarck,

1822)) and a gorgeous dead and clean costate horn
shell ( Cerithidea costata (da Costa, 1778)), along
with a Barbados miter ( Mitra barbadensis (Gmelin,

1791)). All of us observed large chitons on intertidal
rocks. I had the good fortune to find a live mouse
cone ( Conus mus Hwass, 1792) moving around a
rocky intertidal pool at mid-day. On the beach,

Ellen found a dead hawk-wing conch {Strombus
raninus Gmelin, 1791) and a long-spined star-shell
(Astraea phoebia Roding, 1798). In the water she
took the little white-spotted miter {Mitra puella
Reeve, 1845), a crown cone {Conus regius Gmelin,

1791) and a dead and clean juvenile Atlantic yellow
cowrie. Jim collected two flame helmets and a large
West Indian top shell {Cittarium pica (Linnaeus,

1758)). He also found two fresh dead and clean
true tulips in excellent condition, one an exceptional
orange color and the other light brown/tan.

Everyone prospered on the beach, picking
up a variety of shells that included tusks, coffee
bean trivias, the gaudy asaphis, Atlantic morums,

Jasper cones, common dove shells, ivory ceriths, common West
Indian bubbles, black-ribbed limpets, Barbados keyhole limpets,
the tinted catharus and chestnut latirus, gold-mouthed Tritons, and
colorful Atlantic moons. There were many washed up sea biscuits
and sand dollars. This beach is truly a natural wonder and fit the
bill for all of us.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Upon waking this morning, the realization that my time
in Eleuthera was swiftly drawing to a close is first and foremost on
my mind. Little did I know that snorkeling north of Governor’s
Harbor Airport was destined to become a very exciting day. Jim

Saturday, May 29, 2010

This morning we are heading south past the town of Rock
Sound. We cross a small bridge and park our cars. This habitat
is very rocky. We carefully make our way out. Once again, Ellen
discovers another small octopus. We carefully play with it for a
few minutes then went on our way. I saw many beautiful yellow
and black colored mussels in extensive beds and delicate file
clams on rocks with valves open and tentacles gracefully swaying
with the current. I was fortunate to find deltoid rock shells {Thais
deltoidea (Lamarck, 1822)) and West Indian stars {Lithopoma
tectum (Lightfoot, 1786)), both species attached to rocks. I also

Page 32

Vol. 38, No. 4

find lace murex and apple murex. Jim finds McGinty’s murex
and glossy dove shells {Nitidella nitida (Lamarck, 1822)). Ellen
finds a dead and clean immature purple milk conch along with lace
murex. A great haul!

This afternoon we explore a beach that no one in our
group has ever seen. In my opinion, this was THE most beautiful
beach and reef we had been to all week. The deserted beach is
named Whiteside and is on the Atlantic Ocean. White and pink
sand, softly swirled together like a parfait that has only been lightly
stirred. A palette of dreamy water colors with hues in turquoise
and teal. The reef alive and teaming with lacy purple fans, large
sponges, coral reefs separated by white sand bottom corridors,
which became a snorkeler’s highway. Heaven truly does exist on
Earth! With all this natural beauty to absorb, one can truly forgive
the fact that this beach offers nothing for shell collectors. In fact,
it was difficult to find any shell of any kind whatsoever, but there
were a couple of surprises to be relinquished by the ocean. Ellen
found two king helmets, one live and the other being the most
outstanding, clean and fresh dead, with markings so rich and dark
in color, it would have “knocked my socks off” had I been wearing
any. I plucked a pretty flamingo tongue (Cyphoma gibbosum
(Linnaeus, 1758)) from a purple sea fan and I found an Atlantic
Triton’s trumpet attached to the wall of the reef. The shell was of
poor quality so I returned it. Even though we hit rock bottom as
far as shelling goes at this location, for me, the sheer beauty of the
place puts it at the top of the list to visit again on my next trip. In
my opinion, it is a feast for the eyes.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

The day of reckoning has arrived, and the critical question
is will all of those frozen shells make it home frozen, or at least
semi-thawed? Another thought was how heavy are we now? We
found out in Ft. Lauderdale upon checking in for our flight. We
definitely were over the weight limit and paid the additional fee. I
must confess it must have been those four liters of Ricardo Rum
that tipped the scales upward, but it was worth it!

A Few Things Learned

1. How helpful it is to have daily high and low tide sched¬
ules to plan for a successful shell hunt.

2. How amazing it is to see color differences in the same
species such as true tulips that differ from one location to
another, being separated by only a few miles.

3. How crucial habitat is to the viability of shell speciation,
such as Chicoreus dunni and Volvarina jimcordyi , which
are endemic to only two different salt ponds on Eleuthera.

4. How crucial it is to keep a daily log or journal to record
what shells were found where, along with pertinent habi¬
tat information to create accurate identification slips.

5. Always “hang” king helmets immediately to help hasten
the cleaning process.

6. Bug spray is as important as bottled water.

7. Enjoy Kalik Beer and Ricardo Gold Rum which is made

only in the Bahamas.

8. Empty Pringles Crisps canisters make great shell collect¬
ing containers.

9. Take time to visit with the locals and be a good American
ambassador.

10. If one must drive with parking lights on during daylight
hours, be absolutely sure you turn them off before leaving
your rental car, as getting a jump may be just as difficult
as calling Triple A.

11. How wonderful it is to share a cottage with a woman who
has taken the time to cook, freeze, and fly six complete
and nutritionally balanced meals from the U.S. to a Ba¬
hamian island.

12. I had so much fun I can hardly wait to return.

Amy Dick

amelia-ann@msn. com

Space Coast Treasures

2011 COA Convention
Radisson Resort at the Port
Port Canaveral, Florida
July 12-17, 2011

December 2010

American Conchologist

Page 33

COA Award Winners

Doug Wolfe won the COA Award at the North Carolina Shell
Show, 25-26 September 2010. Doug’s display was a showing of
49 of the 50 shells listed by Peter Dance in “Rare Shells,” (1969).
Amassing 49 of the 50 shells listed by Peter Dance is no mean feat.
Of the shells listed, Dance says, “A book like this is necessarily a
very personal, subjective affair... ” So too is attempting to collect
these same species. Yes, many are now fairly commonly available,
but just as many are still uncommon enough to command hefty
price tags and a few are famously difficult to obtain. There are
rarer shells, but these were both rare and showy. Doug’s display
encompassed 6 cases spread over 13 feet. Like Dance’s book, he
presented much more than just the shell. He also summarized the
history of each shell as provided by Dance and then updated the
collecting history from when Dance wrote “Rare Shells.” It was an
eye-catching display, well worth winning the COA Award. There
were a total of 190 feet of shell display at this year’s event. Judges
were Dr. Harry Lee and Brain Hayes; Shell Show Chairman was
John Timmerman. Other winners at the show were:

DuPont Trophy - Ed Shuller & Jeannette Tysor for “Mystery of the
Migrating Mollusks.”

Hugh Porter Award - Vicky Wall for “Self Collected Shells from
North Carolina.”

Dean & Dottie Weber Award - Vicky Wall for “The Queen Conch
- Icon of the Caribbean.”

Shell of Show any source - Ron Hill for Austroharpa exquisita
Shell of Show self-collected - Vicky Wall for Decatopecten
noduliferum

Karen VanderVen won the COA Award at the Philadelphia
Shell Show, 9-10 October 2010. Karen’s display was “Volutes
of the Tropical Western Hemisphere.” She had 8 cases displayed
in over 22 feet with volutes from all areas of the tropical Western
Hemisphere. Karen’s display was well thought out and exhibited
the many forms, colors, and sizes of this varied group of volutes.
The Philadelphia Shell Show is a large well attended event with
stiff competition in any category imaginable. This year there were
over 350 feet of exhibit cases and an attendance well over 1,000.
Judges were Dr. Ellen Strong and Dr. M.G. Harasewych, Shell
Show Chairman was Paul Callomon, and Exhibits Chairman was
J.B. Sessoms. Other winners at the show were:

DuPont Trophy - John & Darlene Schrecke for “True Conchs of
the World.”

Masters Award - Gene Everson for “Seashells of the New
Millennium, Self-collected.”

Leonard Hill Award - Tom Grace for “ Maurea of New Zealand.”
John Dyas Parker Award - Rich Kirk for “Mother of Pearl.”

Robert Fish Award - Michael Gage for “Shells of Hawaii.”

Best Shell - Patricia Whitacre for Angaria sphaerula.

Best Shell, Self-collected - Gene Everson for Conus theodorus.

Doug Wolfe with his COA Award won for his display of Peter
Dance’s “Rare Shells.” The caption for each shell included its
present status and collecting history.

Karen VanderVen with her COA Award for “Volutes of the
Tropical Western Hemisphere.” Also shown, left to right: Ellen
Strong, M.G. Harasewych, Paul Callomon, & J.B. Sessoms.

Page 34

Vol. 38, No. 4

Mystery Bivalve in the Caribbean

by D. Y. Zhang

On 10 April of this year I was
walking the shore of St. John’s, Antigua,
the largest and capital city of this marvelous
Caribbean island. The tide was quite low
and I took advantage of that fact to explore
some infrequently exposed rocks and beds
of seaweed. I came across an area that no
one seemed to have walked on and found
a large exposed bed of seagrass (Halodule
wrightii ) (Fig. 1). When I sifted through
the seagrass to see if there were any hidden
mollusks, I found thousands of small

Fig. 1 One of the untouched beds of seagrass (Halodule wrightii)
exposed by the low tide.

Fig. 2 The seagrass from a closer perspective showing the bi¬
valves exposed on top. Many more were hidden within the
grass cluster.

Fig. 3 A close up view of the mystery bivalves, each measuring
approximately 10mm+.

bivalves literally covering the individual blades of grass (Figs. 2
& 3). There were also dozens of small blue crabs amongst the
grass, possibly feeding on the bivalves. I pulled apart three small
bundles of seagrass to take back and study, hoping to be able to
identify these small bivalves. These were small patches of grass
(held comfortably in one hand) and yet I counted a total of 1,380
bivalves attached to the grass. The smallest shells were 4-6mm
(about 6 individuals). There were about 200 shells that were over
6mm but less than 10mm, and the rest were 10-13.3mm.

I returned to the site one week later and almost all of the
shells were gone. While some were certainly served up as prey to
crabs or other mollusks, I believe the majority released their hold
on the grass to let the tide and currents take them elsewhere. I
base this upon an observation of the few remaining shells that, as I
watched, released their hold on the grass and became free floating
(Figs. 4, 5, & 6).

The shell are translucent green to pale greenish-brown
and mottled with rayed zigzag stripes of dark green, greenish-
brown, or brownish-purple. In some there was a wider band of
color (green, brown, dark brown, or white) from the umbo to the
posterior ventral margin. The interior of the valves is a pearly
nacre. Figs. 7-8 show a typical shell, this one is 12.3mm in its
longest dimension.

So what is this small mystery bivalve. My best guess
is that this is a species of Electroma. This is a small genus in
the family Pteriidae, the pearly oysters that include the genera:
Electroma , Pinctada (pearl oysters), and Pteria (winged oysters).
When I asked Harry Lee what he thought, he concurred with this
initial identification. So why should we care about this find that
may be interesting but seems rather mundane? Because, until now,
they have not been found in Atlantic or Caribbean waters. This
“infestation” is probably the product of a visiting ship dumping
its ballast. As these things typically go, the newly introduced

December 2010

American Conchologist

Page 35

(Above & right) Figs. 4,5, & 6
The bivalve pushes away from
the seagrass and becomes free

floating.

(Below) Figs. 7 (right valve) &
8 (left valve) Magnified view
of the Electroma species.

organism fails to gain a viable foothold and is soon gone from
its new potential home, but we all know that sometimes the
introduction succeeds. Just ask Tampa, Florida, residents about
the success of the green mussel (Perna viridis (Linnaeus, 1758))
or anyone interested or involved with waterways in most of the
United States about the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha
(Pallas, 1771)). The introduction of an alien species can have
disasterous effects. This is the first recorded introduction of this
species and we shall see what the future holds. I did find a few
broken shells, obviously predator mutilated, on the shore (Fig. 9).

D.Y. Zhang
kej ushi@hotmail. com

tf,/

(Below) Fig. 9 A broken shell (predation?) collected on the
beach.