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Cyprea talpa
Fiji:
Mr. W. O. Cernohorsky has quoted walkeri bregeriana from New Caledonia and Fiji, in his recently published Catalogue of
Living Cypraeidae (Frankfurt-Main 1963). In fact, since 1962 at least eight bregeriana have been collected in Fiji, all off
the West Coast (Nadi and Momi) facing towards the chief habitat of bregeriana, New Caledonia; especially Mr. A. Jennings has
dredged, at the islands Wading, Akuilau, and Namotu (20 miles off Nadi) several dead and living specimens, one oliviform
shell included of which I could examine the radula (Mr. Cernohorsky presented me a shell from Momi, coll. Schilder No. 17154,
which is 17 mm. long). All specimens show the typical orange base, often darker brown in the center of the inner lip, and the
peculiar white specks on base and margins, but they are much smaller (16 to 21 mm., mean 18 mm.) than typical bregeriana from
New Caledonia (20 to 33 mm., mean 25 mm.). These shells look like a population displaced far from its original habitat in New
Caledonia, where bregeriana is less rare, to an area with less favorable environments, as it is in the two dwarf Erosaria
ocellata Linnaeus from Tjilanat Eureun, South West Java widely separated from their Indian relations (see 1938, Prodrome, p.
138).
South East New Guinea:
If bregeriana could spread from New Caledonia to Fiji, it probably also could spread to North West: therefore I now do not
doubt its occurrence in Joanett Is., Louisiade Archipelago, from which locality Smith (1888, Journ. de Conchyl. 36:313) has
described three bregeriana of 21 to 22 mm.
The indications of habitat: Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Victoria, New Zealand, and Tahiti evidently are erroneous.
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).
Andaman Is.:
one pale surabajensis in the museum of Calcutta, sent to me for examination by Dr. Ray in 1957, it came from an old
collection, but the "A'' written originally on the base of the shell makes the correctness of indication rather probable.
Western Sumatra:
two typical walkeri collected in West Sumatra by Aurivillius in 1891, personally examined in the museum of Stockholm in 1957.
- These two areas close the gap between Lemuria and Malaysia.
North West Australia:
one shell (17 mm.) from Peak Is. in the Dampier Archipelago, collected by the Davina Expedition in 1960, presented me (coll.
Schilder No. 11862) by Ray Summers; some more specimens seem to have been collected in the Dampier Archipelago by this
expedition. Besides, walkeri has been mentioned from Nickol Bay by Brazier (1879, Journ. Conch. 2:321).
North Australia:
Yirrkala in Eastern Arnhem Land, according to Iredale (1939, Austr. Zoologist 9:299). - These two areas extend the occurrence
of walkeri to tropical Australia west of Torres Strait.
Aru Is.:
one shell (19 mm.) recalling the western walkeri has been collected by Merton in 1908, personally examined in the Senckenberg
museum in Frankfurt on Main, Germany. - This locality closes the gap between Misool (Schepman 1909, Siboga Exped. 49/2/2:133)
and Torres Strait (Brazier 1879). The indication "New South Wales'' by Iredale (1935, Austr. Zoologist 8:127) needs
confirmation, the southernmost reliable indication in East Australia seems to be Peel Is. in Moreton Bay.
Ryu-kyu Is.:
Kuroda (1960, Cat. Moll. Fauna Okinawa, p. 21) mentioned "walkeri surabajensis" from Okinawa Is.; the indication seems
correct, as P. W. Clover enumerated two specimens of walkeri from "South of Japan'' in a manuscript list of cowries preserved
in Japanese collections (communicated to the writer by Mr. Ray Summers in 1961).
Caroline Is.:
Recently Mr. C. N. Cate presented me two walkeri from Moen Is. in the Truk Is. (coll. Schilder No. 17135 and 17136); they
formerly belonged to a series of fifteen similar shells dredged by R. Willis in the harbour in January 1962. These two shells
are "pellucid" like the dead glossy cowries dredged in Honolulu harbour, and exhibit a similar white chalk in the aperture:
there, the conditions of preservation in the harbour of Moen Is. must be about equal to those in Honolulu. The specimens
undoubtedly belong to walkeri (surabajensis) and not to bregeriana: the discovery of this far-off population of walkeri in
the central Caroline Is. is not very surprising, as other typically Malayan cowry species also spread to western Micronesia,
e.g. Erronea ovum Gmelin and E. onyx Linnaeus to Palau and Guam respectively.
Northern Melanesia:
Mrs. K. Matcott of Mooloolaba, Queensland informed me by letter in March 1963, that she possesses a "surabajensis" from New
Britain; as I have never examined the shell personally, the reliability of this indication seems to need confirmation.
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