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Sigay shells
This discovery greatly enlarges the known range of the species which was formerly credited to the Antillean islands only
(Schilder 1965, Veliger 7:178), rarely reaching the mainland in Florida (Emerson & Old 1965, Nautilus 79:26, fig.) and
Central America. The type locality "Surinam" was regarded hitherto as doubtful. It should now be considered correct, as the
certified locality "off Ceará" is situated farther off the northeastern coast of South America than is Surinam.
The somewhat confused description of fischeri by Vayssičre, and the lack of substantiated records of C. gaskoini from outside
the Philippine Islands, led some writers to believe the species to be endemic to the Philippine Islands (Kay, 1961, Proc.
Mall Soc. Lond., 34(4):188, and Kay & Weaver, 1963, Sean Raynon Sabado, 2(23):88). Schilder (1965, Veliger, 7(3):183) in his
latest distributional list of Cypraeidae, also shows C. gaskoini to be endemic to the Philippine Islands, with a note on an
artificially introduced record from the Marshall Islands.
The lack of further material of the Melanesian C. gaskoini does not permit a tabulation of morphological differences between
the Philippine race and the race from Melanesia. The Fiji shell, however, is not ovate but elongate-subpyriform, with a lower
more depressed dorsum (resembling C. cumingi Sowerby in outline), and larger lateral spots; the species C. cumingi, however,
has far more numerous teeth (formula 40:34). The Fiji specimen is appreciably more slender than the Philippine gaskoini (55%
of L and 62% of L respectively); both labial and columellar teeth are as numerous as in Philippine specimens, but more
numerous than either the holotype of fischeri (formula 13/61, 21:18), the specimen from Lifu (12/57, 20: 20) or the specimen
from unknown locality in the Dautzenberg collection (11/64, 22:17).
In contrast to Cribraria cribraria (Linnaeus) and C. esontropia (Duclos), the siphon of the Fijian gaskoini is serrated and
not smooth.
If any one word could describe the collecting possibilities in the area of this month's diving and collecting chart it would
be "terrific." Habitat characteristics range from shallow sand-covered bottom, through coral reefs and ledges with
spectacular caves, to lava outcroppings that soar toward the surface out of deep water.
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