|
|
Gold lip
Although I always have been interested in natural science, I only took up shell collecting seriously about three years ago. I
have seen quite a number of Golden Cowries around here, but when I noticed in R. Tucker Abbott's little book Sea Shells Of
The World that the Cypraea guttata was classified as very rare, I didn't give myself a chance of ever seeing one.
Nevertheless, only a couple of months after I got this useful little book, I came across one, to my great surprise, of
course.
My work here in the Solomons includes occasional visit to native villages and on May 24th, 1963 I made a call at one of the
many artificial little islands in the lagoon at Ataa. A man showed me a shell he had found in a fish...I couldn't believe my
eyes, but it was obvious that he had a Cypraea guttata. The color and pattern of spots were perfect; only there was a tiny
spot at the posterior end, slightly on the side towards the inner lip, where the fish had left a tooth mark, probably trying
to crush the shell before swallowing it. The outer polished surface was damaged, but not pierced right through. As a matter
of fact, it is hardly noticeable. The story I got from the man was as follows.
Some day in the previous month (April 1963) this man, Misikarei, and some other chaps went fishing in one-man canoes outside
the reefs, in deep water. They cast their lines opposite a native village Manu. From what I could make out, Misikarei used a
nylon fishing line of about .95 diameter, with a breaking point of 50 or 60 lbs. and he had a fish-hook of about 2 inches. He
assured me that he had well over 100 fathoms fish-line out, right down, and at appr. 8 p.m. he caught one fish, and that was
all he got, the whole night. In the morning when the fishermen went ashore at Manu to sell their catch, the shell was found.
The animal was still in it, but was dead and easy to remove, an indication that the shell hasn't been for long in the stomach
of the fish. As for the fish itself, I don't know what type it was. It is locally called TABAU and was about 18 inches long
and some 6-7 inches high. Manu, incidentally, is a village just a little north of Cape Arsacides on the north-east coast of
Malaita in the Solomon Islands.
The species Cypraea humphreysi was described and illustrated by Gray in 1825 (Zool. Journ., 1:489, pl. 12, fig. 1, and pl. ?,
fig. 1), and his description is as follows: "Shell ovate oblong, milk-white, with three very broad fulvous bands, making the
shell appear fulvous brown, with four narrow bluish white bands one of which is round the concavity of the spire and another
round the anterior extremity, scattered with numerous irregularly shaped fulvous brown spots, the spire concave, partly
covered; the base flat, orange yellow, spotted, the margins slightly thickened, scarcely extended, and sharply margined on
the outer lip and sides of the front; extremity orange yellow, scattered with brown specks, the aperture rather narrow. Teeth
rather large, blunt, pale; the columella flat, smooth, in the hind part plaited, and rather concave in the front. Axis 9/10,
diam. 5/10 of an inch."
The specimen described and illustrated by Gray, came from Mrs. Mawe's collection and was also figured by Wood (1828, Ind.
Test., Suppl. pl. 3, fig. 12) as Cypraea nivea (non Röding, 1798, nec Gray, 1825). Gray's description and illustration of
this species are so detailed that it could not apply to any other known Cypraea species, and his species is undoubtedly the
C. humphreysi of authors, as depicted in Sowerby, Kiener, Reeve, Sowerby, Tryon and others.
Palmadusta lutea yaloka was described as a subspecies of P. lutea (Gmelin, 1791) by Steadman & Cotton (1943, Rec. Sth. Aust.
Mus., 7(4):322) from only 2 specimens found at the Nadroga reef, Viti Levu. The authors did not state in what morphological
characters the new subspecies was supposed to differ from P. lutea humphreysi, but remarked that their specimens did not
agree with the description given for humphreysi. Their figured holotype (1946, Rec. Sth. Aust. Mus., 8(3), pl. 10, figs. 7-9)
does not show the "whitish zonal bands separated by light brown" as mentioned in their description.
gold lip,components part,earing,conus stripe,murex borneous,hammer shells,shelltiles,shell accessories,abalone,gold lip
Gold lip cyprea talpa white clam exporter of fashion shell puka shell leis ornamental conus marmereous black tab supplies pukalet white shell black lip lambis - lambis natural wholesale eggshell capis raw troca male sea urchin shells.
gold lip
Shell
Bracelets
|
