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Telena vergata
The spurca from Tel-Aviv rather agree in size with the specimens coming from the entire Mediterranean, whereas the lurida and
pyrum are unusually small though they have been collected on the same beach as spurca: the reaction of different species to
the same environments evidently is different.
According to Bergmann's rule that animals grow larger in colder climates than in warmer regions, lurida and pyrum are large
in Southern France and in the Adriatic Sea (10 to 12 [deg.] Centigrade in February), and decrease in the Tyrrhenian Sea (13
[deg.] C), in North West Africa (14 [deg.] C), and in the Eastern Mediterranean (16 to 17 [deg.] C); in these five areas the
medians of lurida are 43, 37, 37, 34, 34 mm, of pyrum 36, 36, 33, 32, 31 mm respectively, while in spurca the median varies
from 25 to 28 mm independently from the temperature of the sea.
The well known cowry Lyncina arenosa Gray (1824) was renamed schilderorum by Iredale (1939) because the name arenosa was
preoccupied by arenosa Dillwyn (1823). Recently Wagner C. Abbott, in Van Nostrand's Standard Catalog of Shells (1964, p. 41
and 62), expressed their opinion that Dillwyn's arenosa is "invalid" because it is a "nude name," so that arenosa Gray should
be restored. However, Dillwyn (1823, Index Lister Hist. Conch., p. 33) expressly referred the name arenosa (given by Solander
in an unpublished manuscript only) to a figure published by Lister (1688, Hist. Synops. Meth. Conchyl., vol. 4, pl. 685, fig.
32) which represents a large turdus. Therefore arenosa Dillwyn (1823) is not a numen nudum, and the specific name
schilderorum must be adopted. I hope this note will help to avoid further confusion.
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.
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