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Philippines seashells
Philippines seashells In the Philippine area there still remains the puzzling Midway and Kure Island sea shell illustrated as Cypraea latior Melvill by William Old, Jr., of the American Museum in the December 1963 issue of the Philippine Shell News, page 4. The status of the sea shell therein illustrated has not been settled and perhaps will not be until animal observation and dissection are carried out. It is unfortunate that no live specimens have been reported for study.
I have seen enough specimens (now over 200, mostly beach) of C. rashleighana from Kure, Midway and the Philippine chain to convince me that C. rashleighana is extremely variable as to length-width ratio. There are in the Bishop Museum and in my collection exact duplicates of the shell illustrated by Old and which were collected on Oahu. The variation from nearly spherical to relatively slender shells is also represented in specimens from Oahu. I have C. rashleighana 11mm and 41mm in length. Gigantism among most Philippine sea shells is a well known fact and undoubtedly C. rashleighana is similarly affected. This extreme variation is clearly shown in the photographs. I believe the cowry illustrated by Old to be the large, elongated, C. rashleighana. For comparison a similar wide variation in C. teres is also illustrated. However, each shell retains the specific characteristics already given. The fine labial teeth on the C. subteres are diagnostic and easily seen on the enlarged illustrations. (See Page 8).
In summary I conclude that Melvill's C. rashleighana is specifically similar (though smaller) to the Philippine C. rashleighana. The specific differences between C. rashleighana and C. teres are:
1. Smaller size and larger number of spots on the base of C. rashleighana.
2. Spots distributed on one-third to one-half of lateral margins of base.
3. Presence of a prominent columellar callus even on subadult forms of C. rashleighana.
4. Cypraea latior is properly a synonym of C. teres.
Philippines seashells Dr. Lee, who is a diver, tells us that the shelling off Brazil was excellent and that the people were friendly and cooperative. Lee was able to add numerous other species to his collection through diving in this area.
Very recently another specimen of Cypraea joycae (Clover, 1970) was dredged near Kaohsiung, not far from the southern tip of Formosa.
This extremely rare species was described last year by Phil Clover in the Japanese malacological magazine, Venus (June 1970). The holotype and the present specimen were both found in approximately the same location and depth (about 700 feet).
C. joycae is a very attractive shell. The dorsum is white with regular small brown spots and a few larger ones. The ventral surface and the tips are a bright orange.
The specimen shown [left] is in absolutely perfect condition. It measures 51 x 35.8 x 27mm and is available for sale.
During my 2 years in Spain, I have collected from Huelva, the famous port where many sixteenth century ships left to explore the New World, to Valencia well into the Mediterranean Sea. As we live near Cádiz most of the shells I have found are from this area, as one can only drive so far to catch a low tide. The water is quite cold here & visibility is never over 10-20 feet so most collecting is done on reefs at low tide.
Southern Spain has some of the finest clear weather I have seen anywhere in the world & most of the reefs are void of people except near towns & during the summer tourist season. One can walk by 3,000 years of history in Cádiz & even find shells on the walls of a sunken Phoenician city in this area. So regardless of what shells are found, an outing to the beaches & reefs is always enjoyed.
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