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Pearl
Pearl Outer Apra Harbor itself is small as far as harbors go, being only 3 miles long by 1 mile wide and has a fairly isolated history compared to the surrounding ocean due to the configuration of Orote Peninsula, Cabras Island, Luminao Reef and Calalan Bank. Further isolation was provided by a breakwater built upon the Luminao Reef and Calalan Bank in about 1941. This structure eventually evolved into its present form known as Glass Breakwater which was completed in about 1951 and leaves the harbor with only one narrow opening to the sea.
One would presume with conditions such as this that a population of a shell species would become inbred with a tendency to greatly resemble one another as to size, form, and markings, although possibly departing from the norm of its species living in other areas. At any rate, the accompanying photos may serve to illustrate the variations observed with perhaps the following being the most interesting:
Note 1. The considerable difference in size, especially in a species noted for the uniformity of this feature in shells from most other single small localities i.e., shell No. 1 with a length of 76mm and No. 12 with a length of 46mm on plate A.
Note 2. On plate A, the difference in width/length and height/length ratios from the inflated shell No. 3 with a W/L of 69 percent and H/L of 58 percent as compared to the cylindrical No. 10 with W/L of 54 percent and H/L of 46 percent.
Note 3. The heavy columellar callus present on the depressed-appearing No. 7 on Plate C. Light calluses are on shells No. 1, 2, 3, 5 but absent on all others.
Note 4. The conspicuous dark, mask-like blotches on the dorsals of shells No. 1, 2, 7, 8 - plate B, while faint or absent on the remaining specimens.
Pearl In Truk, the problem was a different one. Many sandy beaches surround the island, but everywhere the many bonjos (native toilets built over the water) along the shoreline make diving in the lagoon near the island unattractive and a potential health hazard. In Truk it is easy and less expensive to rent a boat, but the nearest islands for diving are about forty five minutes away and the outer reef much farther than that.
The highlight of our trip to Micronesia was the week we spent at Ant Atoll. Diving and collecting conditions were ideal and varied. They were so interesting we spent two sessions of three or four hours each in the water every day. I shall never forget being "serenaded" on New Year's Eve by frenzied percussion rhytPhilippine Shell played by natives in dugout outrigger canoes around the yacht. Without our friends and the yacht the trip to Ant Atoll would have been impossible.
W. Huibert Sabelis, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto 5, Canada, writes, "Enclosed are colored slides of Cypraea tigris which is different from the usual color pattern. Please let me know if similar specimens have been collected. This specimen came from Fiji."
From the appearance of the shell (see [left]) it is probably slightly sub-adult and has not yet deposited its completely adult color pattern. Similar color pattern has been observed in Philippine C. tigris.
Photo - uncredited
The Philippine C. guttata
trawled from 100 to 150 fathoms
(600 to 900 feet) depth in June, in '68.
A recent communication from Mr. C. C. Finley, Navcomsta, Box 12, FPO San Francisco, California 96656, tells of his acquiring C. guttata from the Philippines.
"I am presently stationed at Naval Communications Station, San Miguel, Philippines. I have been here over a year and have really enjoyed my tour of duty, collecting shells while snorkeling in surrounding waters.
"Recently my friend Joe Bibbey called me and asked how much money I could get together quickly as he had located a rare shell. I thought he might have located a C. aurantium Gmelin, 1791, as a few specimens have been found since I have been here. This was not the case. The shell he had located was C. guttata guttata (Gmelin, 1791). Surprised is a mild word for what I felt about this shell. I had seen a few specimens of this exceedingly rare shell before but never dreamed of owning one. The length of this shell is 65mm x 39.5mm x 33mm. It is fully adult and was collected in 100 to 150 fathoms by trawler's nets.
"I have written W. and Mrs. Cate and found that the shell from the Philippines should be called Erosaria (Erosaria) guttata guttata (Gmelin, 1791). I have checked with W. Fernando Dayrit and Mr. Mario Mereada. Both say this is the first live-collected specimen of C. guttata collected in the Philippines.
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