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Shell craft
Shell craft A new boat was launched and put in service in the best Philippine tradition. Jack Uyemura launched his new 20 foot luger boat last week. His pride and joy took ten months of back yard boat building. The boat's name is C. cernica (after the elusive Cypraea cernica that Jack is looking for), [and was] altered to carry 20 scuba cylinders and diving gear for three plus 200 foot of nets and over 1,000 pounds of iced fish. On the trial run Bobby Gutierrez, as a crew member, collected five Cypraea tigris and speared over 100 pounds of fish. But in the tradition of old Philippines, to insure continued good luck for the boat and crew, the entire catch was shared with neighbors. I came home with a fine C. tigris and several pounds of kumu (Philippine name for goat fish or red mullet).
On their second trip out, Jack collected a fine 5" C. tigris and Bobby found one measuring less than 3-3/4". In Philippines, a C. tigris measuring less than 4" is rarer than one over 5" in length. Jack's first boat that C. cernica replaces was named C. tessellata. We might mention that Jack found his share of those Philippine beauties. Good luck, Jack, with the new boat.
Leo Hockett, of the Pearl Divers Club, found a Charonia tritonis that measured 440mm in length. This giant was found in 120 feet of water off Makua. See page 4 for related story on Charonia tritonis and C. variegata.
Forty years ago, in Ann. Nat. Mus. Wien, 43:231 (1929), we established Luponia alfredensis as an ecological subspecies of L. edentula Gray, differing by the more solid shell with the right margin more thickened; the shells were slightly larger than those of L. edentula from the same locality (Port Alfred, South Africa), the dorsum was more worn that in L. edentula so that it looked pale brown without any traces of spots.
Recently Mrs. Hazel Jefferies of Kei Mouth, South Africa presented us forty specimens of Luponia which she had collected personally on the ten miles-long beach between Kei Mouth and Haga Haga: all shells are surprisingly well-preserved so that they show accessory differences in color and markings. The slightly smaller (mostly 24 - 26mm) and less solid L. edentula is dorsally pale brownish-orange with the rusty-brown specks rather large, irregularly confluent, but never showing the tendency to form a central blotch; while the larger (mostly 26 - 29mm) and very solid L. alfredensis is dorsally grey, with the fulvous specks tiny and scattered, and with a large, well defined central blotch, which is often interrupted by paler lacunae, but rarely absent at all. There are no intermediates between the twenty shells of each species so that Mrs. Jefferies could separate them without any mistake.
Shell craft The day was perfect, sunny and warm. The water was perfect – very calm and smooth, with a low tide of 0.8 ft making for an uncommonly easy access to the deep waters off Bolo Point, Okinawa (East China Sea). After working the medium depth area of 70 to 80 ft for a while, my diving partner, Phil Whitelock and I dropped down to the deeper waters of 115 to 125 ft. Then, while combing the sand and broken coral at the base of a sheer vertical cliff, I caught a glimpse of gold in the sand. It was a beautiful small sea shell of a bright, golden hue - dead, but obviously fresh dead. At the time, I didn't know what I had found; but I knew I didn't have one in my collection and couldn't recall seeing one in any of the local collections I was familiar with. [photos - uncredited]
After several more minutes of vain searching of the sand for more, I gave up and started a gradual accent up the wall of the underwater canyon I was in. Then, I saw another flash of gold, this time in a small crack in the wall. It was another "golden" sea shell – this time, alive. In the same crack with it was a live juvenile. Although I can't be positive at this time, I do feel that the juvenile is the same as it's "crack-mate."
When Phil and I compared "finds" back at our car, we discovered that he had also found one of the "golden" sea shells – alive. Once back at home with our reference books, we found our "golden" sea shells to be "Erosaria cernica ogasawarensis" (Schilder, 1944), shown above. Crawford N. Cate writes in his Length Width Height Lip
Teeth Col.
Teeth
[in mm.]
25.1 17.9 14.0 21 16 largest mature shell
25.0 16.5 13.8 18 15
24.0 18.0 13.8 18 16
23.4 15.5 13.0 18 17
22.5 16.6 12.0 18 18
22.4 16.8 12.2 19 17
20.3 14.9 11.1 19 18 smallest mature shell
18.0 11.8 9.5 14 14 juvenile (?)
"sea shells of the Ryukyu Islands" in Vol. 10 - No. 1, page 31 of The Veliger, that this sea shell can be considered very rare for Okinawa. At that time, only one had been found, and that had been found by Bernice Albert on April 7, 1966.
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