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Tuna fasciolata
Over 60 specimens of P. humphreysi from 14 Viti Levu and Vanua Levu localities were examined, and the color pattern was found
to be highly variable; specimens from Akuilau Island (Nadi Bay) and Nananui-Ra Isld. (Nth.-Viti Levu), were exceptionally
dark, with the brown spots so dense that the milky-white base color was almost obscured. Specimens from the Nadroga and Suva
reefs were generally lighter in color, and the number of either brown or white dorsal zones varied from 0 - 4. Specimens
varied in size from 11mm - 20mm, and were either slender or squat and broad, hardly margined at all or with a pronounced
marginal callus. There should be no difficulty to select specimens from these series of shells which would match the
type-figures of C. humphreysi Gray, P. lutea yaloka Steadman & Cotton, or any other figure illustrating humphreysi in the
major monographs on the Cypraeidae.
Fijian specimens of P. l. humphreysi when compared with specimens of the species from the Great Barrier Reef, Qld.,
Australia, and those from Samoa, do not exhibit any morphological differences which would be worth chronicling. The specimens
of P. l. humphreysi from harbor dredgings of Apia Harbor (Upolu) and Asau Harbor (Savaii), Samoa, together with specimens of
Pustularia cicercula (Linnaeus) and Bistolida pallidula (Gaskoin), are new verified records from this region, and were
obtained by Mr. A. Jackson from Apia.
If we refer to the original descriptions of some Cypraeidae species, e.g. errones, caurica, helvola, poraria and staphylaea,
all established by Linnaeus (Syst. Nat., 1758), we shall realize how detailed Gray's description of humphreysi is in
comparison. Linnaeus' description of these five species consists of from 5 - 11 words and no references to figures are cited.
The elucidation of many Linnaean species has to be usually looked for in the works of revising subsequent authors.
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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tuna fasciolata
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