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Bursa rubeya
Description of Pusula (Dolichunis) producta:
Ovate and humped, with broadened, somewhat angled sides and produced extremities. White in colour throughout, with transverse
ribs crossing the dorsum completely and extending over the margins and base onto the columella. The transverse ribs are
white, elevated, sharply cut, and the interstices are broad and crenulate; a dorsal groove is absent and the spire is
covered. Base is flattish, labial lip broad, slightly convex and fairly straight; aperture is of medium width, widening
slightly anteriorly. The posterior outlet is deeply cut, fossula is very broad, concave, ribbed, and extending towards the
labial wall.
Size of illustrated specimen: L: 11.8mm, W: 72%, H: 55%, Lab. teeth: 23, Coll. teeth: 19, Dorsal ribs: 28, Marginal ribs: 41
(The width and height are expressed in the percentage of the length; the dorsal and marginal ribs are counted on both sides
of the shell, the 4 - 5 loop-like, vertical ribs at each extremity have been excluded). Iredale's T. excelsa measures as
follows: L: 18mm, W: 72%. H: 56%. The Australian shell is slightly larger than Fiji specimens of Dolichupis producta 10mm -
15mm but otherwise identical. One of Gaskoin's specimens of D. producta measured about 18mm.)
The first specimen of Dolichupis producta was dredged in 1962 by A. Jennings, in 15 - 16 fathoms off the Momi lighthouse
(West Viti Levu), and a total of 6 specimens have been dredged to date from the same locality. Prior to the Fijian record,
there appeared to be only 6 specimens preserved in collections (Dr. Schilder, in litt.): the holotype in the British Museum,
2 specimens in the Saul collection in Cambridge, and one specimen each in Stockholm and coll. Tomlin and Schilder. Locality
indication on these shells was "Indonesia." The fossil Dolichupis soloensis Schilder, 1937 (Ingen. Ned. Indie, (4) 4:200,
fig. 18) from the Pleistocene of Java, might be a chronological race of the recent form.
Erronea walkeri Sowerby is a rather uncommon cowry species so that it is absent in many collections (Schilder 1940, Arch.
Mollusk. 72:168) and the limits of its distribution are inaccurately known. In our Prodrome (1938, Proc.Malac. Soc. 23:151)
and in my catalogue of all living and fossil Cypraeacea (1941, Arch. Mollusk. 73:96) four "geographical races" have been
distinguished, characterized chiefly by the color of the shell (1952, Mem. Inst. Belgique (2) 45:125); the geographical
distribution of these four races comprised the following areas: walkeri Sowerby 1832: Seychelles, Cargados, Maldives;
surabajensis Schilder 1937: Philippines, Cochinchina to Lombok and Eastern Indonesia (holotype in lower Pleistocene beds of
Modjokerto, Java); continens Iredale 1935: Torres Strait to Moreton Bay; bregeriana Crosse 1868: New Caledonia (and Louisiade
Archipelago?).
The following names should be treated as synonyms: amabilis Jousseaume 1881 = walkeri; merista Iredale 1939 = continens;
barbara Kenyon 1902 and rossiteri Dautzenberg 1903 = bregeriana. The juvenile Ipserronea problematica Iredale 1935 surely
does not belong to walkeri (as Allan 1956, Cowry Shells p. 49 suggested), but to Erronea pyriformis Gray 1824 (see Iredale
1939, Austr. Zoologist 9:317).
In these years after World War II, many interesting cowries have been collected, and much new information became known to us,
also concerning walkeri, so that we were obliged to revise our views, both with regard to taxonomy and distribution.
Taxonomy: The East Australian continens cannot be separated from the Malayan surabajensis; but there seems also to be no
constant character of the Lemurian walkeri, though the latter seems to be generally smaller, paler, and less zonate than the
Malayan "race'' (which should be called continens by law of priority). Whereas the Philippine shells from Siassi Is. are
usually very large (30 to 35 mm.) and dark (dorsal zone vividly brown, well marked, aperture purple throughout), a population
from Ubey on Bohol Is. (destroyed in the museum of Hamburg, one shell No. 3120 in my collection excepted) recalls the
Lemurian shells in size (17 to 25 mm.) and color (creme, zones obsolete, interstices of columellar teeth only pale purplish).
Therefore all specimens from Lemuria to the Philippines and Queensland should be called walkeri. However, the New Caledonian
race bregeriana has proved to be of almost specific rank, and is characterized by tiny opaque white specks embedded into the
glossy orange base and margins, like no other cowry species, Chelycypraea testudinaria Linnaeus excepted: these white specks
are never absent in well preserved bregeriana (though overlooked by its author!), and generally are recognizable in beach
shells too; but they have never been observed in any walkeri coming from farther west than New Caledonia (Joanett Is.
excepted, see below).
Distribution: The areas from which walkeri has been known to the writer till 1941 have been marked by black circles (walkeri)
and triangles (bregeriana) in the map: The three races of walkeri mentioned above seem to be separated by zones uninhabited
by the species. However, after World War II many new localities became known to us which fill up these gaps, or extend the
limits in northern, eastern, and southern direction. Therefore the following areas should be added, which have been marked,
on the map, by empty circles and triangles respectively:
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bursa rubeya
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