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Capis shell
My first experience in a native "Binta Boat" came early the next morning. The boat had the body of a large canoe with two
outriggers on it and a large colorful square sheet for a sail. In no time at all, Joe Abanales and myself were on our way to
Little Santa Cruz Island about two miles off Zamboanga City. I was especially anxious to look the reef over where, in 1959,
thousands of small Cypraea were washed ashore after a typhoon. While I never saw that many cowries there, some seem to be
still washing ashore. I found on the beach: Cypraea cicercula, bistrinotata, globulus, punctata, ziczac, lutea, raysummersi
and scurra, also Conus cylindraceus and mitratus.
I tried diving in the same area at the south end of the island. But even after several hours of breaking coral with a crow
bar from 5'-20' deep, I never turned up any of the shells that I had found on the beach. Next morning I went out with two
native divers to Large Santa Cruz Island working that area over but to little avail except for some common cones and cowries.
So I went on back to Little Santa Cruz and tried diving at about the middle of the island (which is about 1/2 mile long and
500' wide) right in front of a light house. I figured that maybe the current was carrying the shells down to the reef at the
south end of the island where I had collected on the beach the day before.
Again after several hours of turning coral heads and breaking coral I concluded that the rare "cyps" must live in deep
channel water between the islands and the mainland. One nice large dome coral head in 15' of water did yield a small dead
Cypraea that at first glance I thought to be beckii, which made me very happy. However, later on back in the "Binta Boat" I
could see that it was too large for beckii and lacked the ocellated dots all over the dorsum of that shell. I suspected I
might have the exceedingly rare Cypraea martini, but never having seen one before, it wasn't until I arrived back in Manila a
week later that I was sure! When I saw Donald Dan's copy of The Veliger with Crawford Cate's recent artical and illustrations
of Cypraea martini, I really jumped for joy! My specimen was a dead ringer for Cate's specimen except for size (one mm
longer) and being a more adult shell. This makes 2 recent specimens found in the P. I. To have personally collected this
rarity myself was quite an experience! Not counting the other 2,000 shells I bought and collected on my trip to Sulu,
Zamboanga, Davao and Cebu, this one shell made the trip worth while.
The famous collection of the late Ph. Dautzenberg, now preserved in the museum of Brussels, contains several drawers with
almost three hundred pathological monstrosities in cowries. I also have been on the look out for deformations of cowry shells
caused by various accidents during the animal's life, but healed and repaired by the mollusk as far as it was possible.
In his paper Crawford Cate gave statistical notes on (7) C. chinensis from Philippines. The formula of these (7) specimens is
34/70, 15:16 (reduced). However, (3) of these specimens are only 67%, 68%, and 69% in width in relation to the shell's
length. My own shells of C. chinensis from Mauritius have a mean width of 67% of the shell length, and also have a produced
marginal callus. A shell of C. chinensis from Diego Suarez which Dautzenberg named C. chinensis variolaria - variation
convergens is 69% in width in relation to its length. (See illustration in Dautzenberg's collection of Cypraeidae). Crawford
Cate based his separation of the Philippines amiges on the following characteristics: The Philippines shells are broader (67%
- 74% in width in relation to the length), they have a more produced marginal callus, which is marked with spots of a deep
violet color, the teeth are less numerous in amiges and extend as concave ridges onto the broad fossula. Cate further
mentions the design of the dorsal lacunae. However, every active field collector who has handled hundreds of specimens of a
species, is aware of the extreme variability of a species even if it comes from the same locality. Since the colour hues and
dorsal design within a species from the same locality are extremely variable, this characteristic, which is by no means
constant, does not constitute a valid argument in favor of separation and should be disregarded.
The diagnostic characteristics of amiges as outlined by C. Cate, are present in other races of C. chinensis as follows: The
greater width of amiges is present in specimens of C. chinensis variolaria from Mauritius. The fewer teeth of amiges are
identical to the number of teeth in specimens of variolaria from Mauritius and come very close to those of C. chinensis
sydneyensis and C. chinensis violacea. It should be remembered that the tooth count of a given species in a population can
vary as much as plus or minus (3) teeth from the mean, or (6) teeth in individuals. The concave ridges (inner denticles)
extending onto the fossula are by no means a prerogative of amiges, but are distinct on specimens of C. chinensis in my
collection, and those which came from the Philippines, Mauritius and Fiji.
The few peculiarities of amiges as mentioned by C. Cate are present in almost every race of C. chinensis, but come closest to
specimens of variolaria from Mauritius (and possibly from other parts of the central Indian Ocean). The only small difference
between the subspecies variolaria and amiges is the 6% greater width of amiges as compared with Schilder's statistical
figures, and only 3% as compared with my own actual specimens from Mauritius. This is a greater width of 1-1/2 mm. and 3/4mm.
respectively in a shell of 25mm. length, and is insignificant.
Cate also stresses the rarity of C. chinensis in Philippines and that it occupies a different ecological niche as compared
with specimens of C. chinensis in other localities. C. chinensis is rare in Australia, and extremely rare in Fiji. C.
chinensis had been dredged in Sydney harbor from deep water. Dr. A. Kay pointed out in one of her papers the reasons for the
shift in ecological habitat of Philippines Cypraea as compared with shells of the same species from other Pacific localities.
Not only C. chinensis but the majority of Philippines Cypraea have a different benthic range as compared with Cypraea from
other parts of the Pacific region. Ecological habitat of a given species of Cypraea may vary in a locality as small as Fiji:
C. mappa viridis is usually found in shallow water in Fiji, however, in one locality C. mappa lives only at a depth of 30
feet, and is never collected in shallow water.
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