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Black agate
Bert entered his labrolineata in the recent Shell Fair where it was runner-up for "Shell Of The Show" and won a "Special
Awards" ribbon.
An additional Philippine record was supplied by Ursula Wade when she appeared at the Shell Fair with a nice dead labrolineata
that she had found on the beach near the breakwater at Haleiwa on October 12, 1965. Her shell is the 3rd known specimen to be
found in Philippine waters.
A description of the Chamberlin shell follows: Length 20.85 mm., diameter 12.45 mm., height 10.20 mm., number of labial teeth
17, number of columellar teeth 16. Dorsum a dark olive green covered with small bluish-white dots. A row of 23 brown spots
runs just above the right margin, (see fig. 2). Just below these spots is a line of about 18 pit-like depressions. On the
left margin (fig. 3) are a few scattered spots. Base of shell is white.
I really hit the jackpot Saturday at Kaanapali. We were diving in our Cypraea area and not having much luck but the water was
clear. We were enjoying ourselves anyway. The dive was about three-quarters over and I had just found a small C. leviathan
and was busily looking for its mate. The closest coral was a large head on the side of a small hill. I had just loosened this
coral and was about to turn it over when Dean Brown came over to give me a hand. It seems that Dean has a talent for smelling
shells under my rocks so I made a mental note to myself to grab fast. We got the coral over and the water was beginning to
clear when I spotted a shell trying to dig itself into the sand and rubble that was under the coral. Well, I set my hook down
fast and out came a Harpa amouretta.*
After this I had a mild case of narcosis and went about knocking over coral heads indiscriminately. As luck would have it, I
came across a pair of nice C. sulcidentata and on the next coral [head,] a talpa. Still feeling drunk, I went after a coral
head the size of a Volkswagen. I got it so it would move and called Joe Kern over to give me a hand turning it over. On the
first try we did not get it so I put the bar under again and gave a lift. Crack! Out came a two piece shell bar. And that put
an end to shelling for that day.
* Editor: Harpa amouretta is extremely rare in Philippines.
Other details which might be of interest are: at that same spot, this type of Spondylus exists in a colony approximately 20
to 30 specimens, with some of them reaching up to 45/50 cms in length, but so well anchored to the coral as to be impossible
to remove them. The spot is situated approximately half way between the beach and the reefs which are only half a mile apart,
and at these two ends the water is shallow with white sand and coral bottom.
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black agate
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