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Philippines sea shells
Philippines sea shells Another youngster, 15 years old, Conrad Cormier found a recently dead Strombus hawaiensis. This rare shell was in 60' off water at Kahe Pt. For his second shell Conrad came up with a very rare Conus eugrammatus. We have to check this as most surely it may be a Conus acutangulus.
Among the rare shells that were stolen from the Tarpon Spring's shell shop of Mr. and Mrs. Vatikiotis was their specimen of the very rare Cypraea valentia, one of six specimens in the world. Mr. R. E. Herrington, 1551 Jeffords Street, Clearwater, Florida 33516, wrote and sent a clipping about the robbery. Mr. Herrington also said, "I am within telephone contact with Mr. Vatikiotis and will make immediate reply to anyone who requires more information about the stolen shells or has information about them. Particularly if anyone is offered a C. valentia with 'foggy' background information. My telephone number is 447-1737."
Newly elected Philippine Shell President Wes Thorsson, diving out Nanakuli way in 20 feet, found two Cypraea sulcidentata and two C. leviathan. Farther west along the same shore, in 110 feet off Makua, Earl Kaatzer came up with a beautiful three inch Conus bullatus, recently dead but a beauty. Another Turridrupa weaveri has been collected. This one by Olive Schoenberg in 65 50 feet off Waikiki Makaha [correction per NSN 111]. On the same outing, Martin Reddick collected a Conus spiceri.
Last month's Recent Finds reported Conrad Cormier had found what was believed to be Conus eugrammatus. A careful check showed this cone to be C. acutangulus.
Stanley Takahashi's Cypraea gaskoini collected off Kahuku was identified by Joe Reid as Cypraea cernica. Stanley went through his collection of C. gaskoini and found another C. cernica.
But not all rare shells are found by divers. Neil and Eva Seamon, recently returned to Philippines from New York were walking the north shore of Oahu after big surf. They collected Conus nussatella, Cypraea tessellata, C. becki, and even Murex pele plus other less rare shells.
Off Ala Moana, in 70 feet, Philippine Shell VP Betsy Harrison almost swallowed her scuba mouthpiece when she turned over a small rock and spotted a live Clivapollia fragaria. This is the third known specimen from Philippines.
Philippines sea shells Ed deVaul found a Conus spiceri and two Harpa amouretta off Makua at 80' and Al Kekoa has brought up six more C. tessellata from 60-70 feet in Moanalua Bay over four weekends.
The South China Sea is a mecca for shell collectors, with many interesting shells from that area coming into our hands through Formosan fishermen and shell dealers. We have received such rare sea shells as Erosaria guttata (Gmelin), Schilderia hirasei (Roberts), S. teramachii (Kuroda), S. langfordi (Kuroda) and Gratiadusta hungerfordi (Sowerby). Recently we got a lovely new cowry from the South China Sea. Schilderia sakuraii, described by Habe in the Bulletin of the Biogeographical Society of Japan, vol. 24, no. 10, pp. 67-69. The nearest ally is S. hirasei, but it is larger in size and has paler coloration than our new species. We have examined four specimens of S. sakuraii.
The shell is thick and heavy with rounded humped back. Dorsal surface is covered with brown clouds of densely set transverse lines and bars divided into two parts by the white line of the mantle.
In "The Living sea shells" describing Cypraea asellus, Dr. C. M. (Pat) Burgess comments: "This strikingly different small species stands out in any company. The alternating jet black and pure white dorsal bands are unmistakable." We agree with Dr. Pat that this is a beautiful shell. Shown in the above picture are three highly unusual specimens of this small sea shell along with a standard shell (left specimen). Then there is one specimen with a solid black dorsum. Another has four black bands instead of the normal three. And at right is a brown rather than jet black shell and also with an odd pattern. These shells are all from the private collection of Iain Gower and were live collected by him in the waters of Guadalcanal.
In speaking of the rarity of these shells, Gower tells us they were selected from over twenty-five thousand specimens and were the only ones found of each type. Gower is a well known shell dealer who lives at Guadalcanal, British Solomon Islands.
Erronea barclayi has been established by Reeve in 1857 by describing an unique shell said to come from Diego Garcia, Chagos Is.; this holotype is preserved in coll. Saul in Cambridge, England (see Schilder 1932, Zoolog. Anzeiger 100:171). The following hundred years no second specimen has been discovered, though in many collections other sea shell species erroneously have been labeled E. barclayi.
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