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Conus stripe
Recently, Mrs. Kathleen Mateott of Dromana (Victoria) sent me for examination an albinistic cowrie. It was trawled by a
prawner from Mooloolaba, in about 100 fathoms in the same area. The empty shell (the anterior extremity of which has been
injured, but healed during the animal's life) is 31.4 mm long, breadth 54%, with 26 labial and 21 columellar teeth and 9
denticles on the inner margin of the rather broad though shallow fossula. The right margin is regularly pitted. The shell is
subpellucid, white, unspotted, but shows traces of at least five pale fulvous lateral dots on each margin (which are too pale
to be visible on the photograph). The oblong shell recalls a smooth Staphylaea limacina, but the unquestionable presence of
fulvous lateral spots excludes such a determination. Therefore, I think this unique shell to be a deep water albino of
Erosaria tomlini though its teeth are more numerous than in usual tomlini collected on the shores. This determination,
however, needs confirmation by examination of further specimens which I hope will be discovered by future trawling: but I do
not think that Mrs. Matcott's shell may belong to a species new to science. A dilated albinistic tomlini from Tonga has been
figured by Cernohorsky in H.S.N. 1966, no. 82, p. 3).
As for the small and tiny cowries, the main collecting area is on the reefs near the outer edge of the lagoon near the open
sea. At low tides a long stretch of reef falls dry (dry water, the locals call it) and it is possible to walk there without
getting wet feet. Plenty of stones are scattered around, under which many kinds of cowries have been found, as well as a
variety of other shells. The first cowries discovered here were labrolineata, kieneri and rhinoceros, but gradually
staphylaea, felina, helvola and asellus came to light. Further exploration revealed the tiny minoridens and an odd fimbriata,
both very difficult to find as they are so small and well camouflaged and the very attractive cribraria, which the kids
christened "madai." Some rather small "madai" turned up which appeared to be somewhat different from the other cribraria, and
experts have identified them now as being catholicorum. They are quite rare, as one may find just one among some 15-20
cribraria, which by no means are common either. Some nucleus, a couple of teres and an old punctata (very small) were also
found in this general area on the edge of the lagoon. And this year in August, a kid of about 10 year[s old] started to smash
soft coral heads, and discovered poraria with a very dark base.
A second collecting area which has been completely overlooked until recently is a small bay, almost wholly surrounded by
hills, and partly cut off from the sea by a little natural island. Even when the wind sweeps through the lagoon and the sea
gets rough, the little bay remains quiet and peaceful. The greatest depth at low tides is only a few feet, one fathom at the
most. I used to get the ecological variety of coxeni (long and slender, without swollen margins) from South Malaita, but when
the weather got somewhat rough in August, people started to investigate the little bay, and came up with a fair number of the
Malaita variety of coxeni. And in company of coxeni, they found also rather large punctata and some microdon granum, in a
proportion of just one each for 10 - 15 coxeni. Incidentally, the three last species seem to prefer very quiet water, and it
would appear that they mainly feed on weeds which are plentiful in the little bay. Some coxeni have a greenish coloring,
especially when the animal is still in it.
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