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Natural fashion jewelry
In their present condition the dorsum of the shells is light fawn in color and sparsely spotted with dark brown; a faint 5 -
6 mm wide central band crosses the dorsum, and in one shell two narrow bands extend onto the base. The labial margin is
sharply angulate, centrally recurved towards the dorsum and bears from 5 - 12 dark brown spots; the canals are light pink
interiorly and extremities are dark flesh in color and marked with a pair of irregular brown spots. Teeth are numerous and
lined with brown; on the columellar side only the posterior half of the teeth bear brown striae.
The measurements of 4 of the specimens examined are as follows: L: 20.0 mm, W: 10.7 mm, Lab. T: 29, Col. T: 33 and L: 17.4
mm, W: 9.1 mm, Lab. T: 29, Col. T.: 31 (coll. H. C. Gay); L: 18.7 mm, W. 10.0 mm, Lab. T: 28, Col. T: 31 (coll. W.
Cernohorsky); L: 18.1 mm, W: 9.6mm, Lab. T: 25, Col. T: 28 + 1 (coll. J. Pincott). The only other known specimen of superstes
is the badly worn holotype from the New Hebrides (16.6 (54), 28:29). The discovery of the 5 recent specimens confirm the
specific characters of superstes, especially in characters of dentition. The eastern insular species N. superstes which
ranges from the New rides to Tonga, has appreciably more numerous labial teeth ( formula of 5 specimens 18.2 (53), 32:35
reduced) than the continental species N. martini (Schepman, 1907) (formula of 9 specimens 15 (52), 25:33 reduced), which
ranges between the Philippines and North Australia along the Indo-Australian continental shelf. N. katsuae (Kuroda, 1960),
which is confined to the Japanese region, has even more numerous labial teeth than N. superstes (formula of 4 specimens (56),
34:29), but fewer columellar teeth than either N. martini or N. superstes.
The cowrie fauna of the Austral, or Tubuai, Islands needs further research. As the average temperature of the sea in the
coldest month is at least three centigrade below that of the more equatorial areas, it is to be expected that, in the Austral
Islands, many Polynesian species are absent.
In fact, in my catalogue of cowries indicating the exact distribution of living species (Schilder 1965, Veliger 7:171-183) I
have stated (p. 175) that there is one only species (Luria isabella) known from the Austral Islands hitherto. Later on,
however, Mr. William E. Old, Jr. (New York) has informed me by letter that a contact of his, living in Tubuai Islands, sent
him, prior to 1960, six more cowrie species, and that three more species are in the collection of Mr. Stanley Levine (Long
Island City). The provisional list of cowries living in the Austral Islands therefore rises to ten species and is as follows
(1=indicates Hertlein 1937, 2=American Museum (New York), 3=coll. Levine).
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