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Earrings
As each fragment is pried off it is checked for shells and then tossed into the area previously cleared. The reason for this
method is that some shells drop off the coral the moment it is disturbed. Others hang on momentarily then drop off. After the
coral-head has been demolished, I again check each piece previously tossed aside, searching for any shells that might still
be clinging to the coral or that have dropped off as the coral hit the cleared area. By this time the area originally
occupied by the coral-head should have cleared up and I start fanning the silt under the coral-head.
In 40 to 50 feet of water a coral-head such as this might produce several species of Cypraea, the species depending on the
marine growth in the coral. Most Cypraea tessellata that I have collected have been found in such a coral-head and almost
always there was a brownish, leaf-like algal growth into which the tessellata blended perfectly. If the coral-head contained
a reddish, sponge-like growth, Cypraea fimbriata, teres, gaskoini, and rashleighana might be found. If a brilliant, yellowish
growth is present no shells are likely to be found. Most Cypraea will be found in the upper branches of the coral head.
It should be the Malacological trend to consolidate nomenclature and not separate, and separation should be done only if the
characteristics of the new species or subspecies are constant in large series (not 16 shells) of shells, and peculiar to the
new subspecies only. This does not apply at all in the case of C. chinensis amiges and the situation of tagging a new name to
every ecological variation, is getting ridiculous. I am convinced that my article will not stop Mr. Cate from naming another
dozen new subspecies before giving up his malacological hobby, however, it is only fair, that if we have to read Cate's
inconclusive arguments in favor of his new subspecies, we should be permitted to express our own arguments against accepting
his new subspecies. Furthermore, it stimulates scientific thinking, and will show to Mr. Cate that we do not accept every
subspecies he dishes out from his conveyor belt.
In The Veliger, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 74 77, Crawford Cate made an attempt to restore the old subspecific name amiges to current
usage. It is unfortunate that he based his differentiating comparison on specimens from the Philippines only, and did not
take into account specimens of C. chinensis (which the Schilders call C. chinensis variolaria Lamarck, 1810) from Mauritius.
The morphological relationship, despite the greater distance from Philippines, is closer by far between variolaria
(Mauritius) and amiges (Philippines), then it is between C. chinensis, sensu stricto (Philippines) and amiges.
As Crawford Cate pointed out in his article, Melvill & Standen's specimen of amiges was a single, dead shell of unknown
locality. Melvill and Standen's contention that amiges could have come from the Philippines Archipelago was a mere
presumption and by no means zoogeographical reasoning, for the specimen could have just as well come from Mauritius. Once the
locality of a holotype of a species or subspecies is unknown, it is useless to guess where its origin might have been.
The Schilders in their nomenclatural system accept (4) races or subspecies of C. chinensis, which are as follows: C.
chinensis chinensis Gmelin, 1791, (32/61, 17:16). C. chinensis violacea Rous, 1905 (31/63, 15:15), C. chinensis variolaria
Lamarck, 1810 (32/64, 15.16), and C. chinensis sydneyensis Schilder & Schilder, 1938 (35/63, 15:14). The figures in brackets
signify the following: Length in mm., width as a % of length, mean number of labial teeth as reduced to a shell 25mm. in
length: mean number of columellar teeth also reduced (see Schilder, Zool. Anz. Bd. 92, H. 3/4, 1930). The Schilders'
statistical figures were obtained by personally examining 250 specimens of C. chinensis from different localities.
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