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Trokka
Trokka "Leviathans with a problem"
During certain times in the Philippine winter season, the Koko Head area from Kawaihoa Point to the Blow Hole presents marvelous scuba diving and shelling opportunities. Not long ago a friend and I took advantage of the calm beauty. He knows this area and its underwater landscape as well as most of us know the view from the Pali. On this particular morning as we watched the sea and slight swells, we planned our quest for the Cypraea leviathan Schilder. Looking down the sheer rocky steep from 40 feet above, Deane (my diving buddy) pointed out the small cutaway where the leviathans were "holed up." And he ought to know for he had collected C. leviathan from that area on three previous dives. The hole was impossible and fool-hardy to approach from above, but from underwater, after a 10 minute swim, the hide-out was beautifully inviting.
In places it looked very much like a wall of narrow brownish-red shelves. Rock ledges formed the layers of shelves that were colored with coral, algae and sponge growth. The chasm was about 25 feet deep at its deepest and the top shelves were just barely below the receding water level. It was on these overhanging ledges that the C. leviathan lived in less than 8 feet of white water. Their coloring blended so well with the coloring of the rock ledges I could not spot them until Deane showed one to me. After that I did find them myself. The shells were wedged tight between the shelves - or had they grown as large as the existing room permitted? Often it was quite a chore to pry them out of the rocky nooks.
However, there is one problem. On perhaps three-quarters of the shells collected there is what looks like a slightly cloudy layer of oily bubbles. It isn't oil. It doesn't come off. All the shells were cleaned the same way - freezing and forceful rinsing. The ''film" is more apparent over the top area of the shells than at the margined sides. The other 1/4 of the collected shells are bright and shiny. Yet they all came from this one location. Any suggestions from readers as to what causes the film and what one can do about it?
Mr. John Orr, Bangkok, has presented me a curious monstrosity of Lyncina vitellus (Linnaeus) which has been collected alive under a granite boulder at the island Ko Samet off Bang Pae, Eastern Thailand, in 1968 (coll. Schilder 23132).
The normally shaped shell (71mm long) shows on each side of the dorsum an irregularly shaped area of more than 20mm diameter, in which the uppermost layer of enamel (which is about 1mm thick) has been removed so that the equally smooth second layer becomes visible. The posterior margin of the right area shows a still deeper narrow impression (7mm long) piercing the second layer too. All step-like vertical borders of these areas are softened by a thin layer of accessory enamel deposited after the shell's injury. The two uppermost dorsum and the margins are uniformly suffused by chestnut enamel. All these characters look like healed traces of bites by a large fish.
Besides, there is a blunt projection covered by still darker blackish chestnut enamel on the left upper margin of the hardly recognizable spire: it looks like a barnacle covered in a very early stage of the sea shell's growth.
Ed. Note: The condition of the cowry described by Kay Antrim in her Notes From A Novice (top of page [above]) and those described by Prof. Schilder are apparently not similar. However, both shells were collected under rocks where possible damage to the enamel, and probably the mantle, could occur. I am sure Prof. Schilder would like to have for study a specimen of the sea shells described by Kay.
Trokka 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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