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Murex ramusus
Murex torrefactus, a close cousin of M. insularum, deposits about 100 egg capsules on the average containing 5,000 eggs;
about 700 of these hatch as veligers to begin life. Provided 95% of these veligers perish prior to reaching adulthood, then
Mr. deVaul took a fall litter of a single spawn. To prevent regression in malacological science, we would be better advised
to admonish collectors to collect with moderation, i.e. not to take specimens which they cannot share with museums or other
collectors, preserve collecting grounds and egg-masses and refrain from taking juveniles which will be prevented from
reaching sexual maturity and propagation.
In our driving desire to protect the Queen Conch or mollusks in general, we tend to overlook the dire need for the protection
of the Hominid species Homo sapiens. In our own peculiar highly cultured and civilized way we managed to exterminate 30
million of our own species and mutilated the same number within 5 short years. One day there may not be enough of us left to
admire the frilly fronds of the lovely Muricid which was threatened: with extinction anno Domini 1966.
Recently Mr. Trevor J. Sutcliffe, Mount Yokine (Western Australia) has sent me for examination, a Zoila venusta (Sowerby; of
67 mm which he and Mr. Milton East have collected by skin-diving in Geographe Bay, west Australia. The pale orange dorsal
blotches and the unspotted pink margins prove it to be a typical venusta. Besides, Mr. Ray Summers of Petaluma (California)
sent me a color photograph of a similar venusta of 73 mm, which had been collected at Busselton in Geographe Bay, and Mr. C.
N. Cate, Los Angeles (California) possesses another venusta of 69 mm, found in 60 feet off Binningup. Consequently the true
venusta lives in the same area as the dark spotted episema Iredale does, which spreads from Cape Naturaliste to Abrolhos Is.
(coll. Cate), and developed near Perth the dwarf race sorrentensis Schilder. Therefore Zoila episema should be classified as
[a] "morphe" of subspecific rank (see Schilder, 1966, Veliger 8:185) as it is sympatric with the closely allied Z. venusta
and hardly differs in structure, but distinctly in color without any intermediateds known up to now.
The cowrie Lyncina sulcidentata (Gray) is restricted to the Philippine Islands from Philippines to Kure. Nevertheless its
length varies considerably, viz. from 25 to 68 mm, and its relative breadth (expressed in per cent of length) varies from 62
to 83%. Such extremes, however, are rare; the "usual variation" is 32-48 mm and 68-75% respectively: this range comprises two
thirds of specimens approaching the mean and is approximately equal to the double standard deviation (see The Veliger 8:209,
1966).
In the diagram (page 6) 112 adult shells from various localities have been plotted by length against relative breadth: each
dot indicates one shell, the straight lines indicate the limits of "usual variation" in each character calculated by
excluding the extreme [one-]sixth on each end, and the circle passing through the four points of intersection theoretically
comprises about two thirds of shells approaching the center in both characters (40 mm, 71.5%).
The diagram shows two peculiarities: first the median (small circle in 38/72) is eccentric, as most specimens accumulate in
the left half of the diagram, so that the curve of variation in length becomes skew (as it is in many animals); second, there
is a distinct negative correlation between length and relative breadth, as the small shells are relatively broad, the large
shells more slender (as it is in most cowrie shells): for the upper left and the lower right areas outside the limits of
usual variation contain twelve specimens, but the lower left and the upper right corners contain none.
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