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Caput shell
Cypraea semiplota Mighels
"Is it possible that my beautiful collection of shells is destroyed? Is it all ruined? ,.. How is it possible to replace...
{the} species from Europe, East and West Indies, Sandwich Islands... Money and books and goods and buildings can be replaced
but that collection, I fear never." The grief-stricken letter writer, in a letter dated a little more than a hundred years
ago, was Jesse Wedgewood Mighels, a surgeon and amateur conchologist who never traveled further west than Cincinnati, Ohio.
The collection to which he was referring was one which he had painstakingly built up over a period of twenty years and which
had been housed in the buildings of the Portland Society of Natural History in Portland, Maine; it was destroyed by fire in
January, 1854. Both Mighels and his collection are of interest to us because Mighels described some 51 species of Philippines
shells, including five species of cowries, and his collection housed the types of his species.
According to an article by Richard Johnson1, Mighels was born in Parsonfield, Maine, in 1795. At first a teacher, he later
studied medicine under a local physician and then received his M.D. from Dartmouth College. He achieved a reputation as a
surgeon in Maine, and in 1847 moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he became a professor in the Cincinnati College of Medicine
and Surgery. He returned to Maine in 1858, and died there in 1861.
Mighels became interested in shells about 1827, collecting them at first because of their beauty. By 1846 he had amassed a
collection "... of over three thousand species and upwards of ten thousand specimens, including all of the species known to
inhabit the State of Maine, as well as many 'rare and interesting varieties'.''] Beginning his collection with the shells
which he himself could collect in Maine, Mighels soon found that collectors in various parts of the world were willing to
exchange their shells for his Maine shells. Among his contacts was the Reverend Edward Johnson, for many years a minister at
Waioli in Hanalei, Kauai. Johnson apparently sent a great deal of material to Mighels, and as a result, Mighels published in
1845 in the "Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History" the descriptions of some fifty-one species of Philippines
gastropods. Five of those species are the cowries with which we are concerned.
Cypraea semiplota, the first of Mighels' Philippines cowries, was described as "... ovate, ventricose, short, thick, smooth,
light brown, with numerous obscure white spots; base tumid, white; aperture yellowish, narrow. Length 2/5 inch, breadth 3/10
inch. Hab. Oahu." This species was followed, with three species intervening, by a description of Cypraea spadix,
distinguished from the former species only by a few details, such as "elongate-ovate," "rostrate," etc. Neither was
illustrated. The subsequent nomenclatural history of the two species is complex, C. semiplota having been put into the
synonymy of C. limacina at various times, and also been known as C. annae and C. polita Roberts. It is now recognized as a
good species in its own right and is thought to be endemic to the Philippines Islands. C. spadix, which has also had a varied
nomenclatural history, is now considered a synonym of C. semiplota, Mighels apparently having been deceived by the
variability of the species.
A third cowry species described by Mighels was C. unifasciata. This species has long been recognized as a synonym of C.
fimbriata Gmelin. Mighels' name of unifasciata still appears in the literature, however, for the Schilders recognize it as a
subspecies of C. fimbriata, with a distribution within the Philippines Islands and to Henderson Island.
The remaining two cowry species which Mighels described in the genus Cypraea are now recognized in the genus Trivia insecta
and sphaerula. Trivia insecta is perhaps the most commonly occurring of the Philippines Trivia, and is easily recognizable by
its small size (5 mm) and corrugated, white surface. Mighels' C. sphaerula is now considered a synonym of what is locally
called Trivia pilula Kiener. It is easily distinguished from T. insecta by its almost circular shape, although it may also
reach 5 mm. in both length and diameter.
Back on the boat our loot included Conus glans, stercus; Muscarium and Scabreusculus, Cypraea chinensis and poraria; Lambis
lambis (by the dozen); Rapa violacea; Nassarius papillosus; Oliva miniacea; Mitra ambigus; Murex adusta and triqueter to name
a few.
After lunch we traveled further into the Bay and dove again with about similar results. About 3 P.M. we anchored all the way
inside the Bay and could even see some native huts on the beach. The water still was deep but more dirty here. We were told
that Selangium Bay is used as an anchorage for the U.S. Navy Fleet during the typhoon season and I can easily believe this as
it is 50' deep all over right up to 100 feet off shore.
Anyway, into shore three of us went. The rest of the party were too tired to dive anymore. The reef, as such, was all dead
and very dirty, only about 3' deep too. We spread out and started to look over the area. It was mostly dead silty slabs of
coral and dead coral heads to turn over. Only a few Lambis and Cypraea erosa were found and nothing else. As I was about to
give up and head back to the boat with the other divers, I noticed a small, dirty sand patch about 4" x 12" with two
elongated humps sticking out of it. As this was just a glance I didn't think much of it, till I remembered the shape of a
shell shown in Webb's Handbook, Plate 5, see #8, and instantly it came to me what Webb said, "I have had these from the west
coast of Luzon" which is where I was today. Before me, in 3' of dirty, muddy water was a perfect pair (alive) of Murex clavus
- a synonym for Murex elongatus. My joy was boundless and I had everyone in the boat looking for this rarity in no time. We
spent till almost dusk, but to no avail. There just were no Murex elongatus on that reef anywhere.
We had a bit of a time getting home as the boat's running lights were burned out, and we hadn't planned on traveling after
dark. The moon was out and all went well till we came to Subic Bay. From here on we were in the main channel that the
aircraft carriers use and it was a scary run into port, but we made it O.K. Everyone had a good time and for me it was one of
the finest diving trips I had made in years. No doubt, we and many others will go back to Selangium Bay as these were the
first 2 live Murex elongatus found in this area with accurate locality data, from what I can gather talking to the local
divers and shell collectors. The natives bring them to Manila from the Sulu Sea area but never seem to know exactly how or
where they are found.
The Murex elongatus were covered with seaweed and moss and blended in well with the dirty brown to black reef. With their odd
shape too, they don't look like a normal sea shell at all.
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