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Luhuanus
The last word in the Golden Cowry (Cypraea aurantium Gmelin, 1791) story has not been told. Future researchers will have to
tell it. This is the last in the present series (Jan. 1963 etc.) by the present writer. In this series, we have attempted to
bring together all the valuable information on this beautiful shell. The present article is concerned with additional
information resulting from a reading of the article by various shell collectors.
One of the most interesting letters was received from Charles O. Kile who was formerly an employee of the Trust Territory and
had many opportunities to learn about this shell. At present, Mr. Kile is retired but is still living at Agana, Guam, P.O.
Box 2046. Pertinent parts of Mr. Kile's letter follows:
"However, relative to the Golden Cowry, I really do not believe that they are as rare as it is commonly believed. I base my
assumption on conversations I have had with various natives in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and especially
with an intermediate student from Ulithi who was attending school at Yap. He graduated from the intermediate school in 1960.
He was a very intelligent boy. He had an unusually good command of the English language and an understanding of our terms
that was outstanding.
"He assured me that the Golden Cowry was plentiful in the Ulithi area, but that they were seen generally in chimneys within
the coral formation. He said that it was necessary to dive and enter the chimney from underwater. He assured me that he had
seen many of them when he would be out fishing. He also informed me that most of the large fishes seem to feed on them, but
that the tuna like them more than most of the other fishes. This was also told to me by some of the Trukese people and
especially by the District Sheriff of Truk, Mr. Ezra Kiego. He told me that the Trukese name for tuna means 'swallow shell.'
Sheriff Kiego's father was a very close friend of one of the early Protestant missionaries. Kiego's father collected shells
which the missionary shipped to the States for sale.
"Relative to the habitat of the Golden Cowry, I am inclined to believe from what I've been told that they prefer the windward
side of land. But it has been my experience that several of the other cowries seem to prefer the rough water particularly the
Cypraea mauritiana."
The place occupied by this shell among the tribes of the various islands has been referred to previously in this series. G.
Tourres of Noumea, New Caledonia, mentions the venerations in which the shells are held among the inhabitants of the Loyalty
Islands, explaining that it was impossible to get them to part with the shell. Mr. Kile refers to this subject in the
following paragraph:
1. There is no population in which only rostrate or melanistic shells occur, and normal shells are absent.
2. There is locally a gradual passing from normal shells to sub-rostrate and rostrate ones; Cernohorsky estimated (by letter)
the relative frequency of these stages in Mauritia eglantina Duclos in Mondoure Bay as about 30: 5: 1.
3. Rostration and melanism often occur in the same specimen, but they are not always linked.
4. Localities from which such shells are known, may be scattered over the whole region inhabited by the species, but they
evidently are concentrated in certain smaller areas.
5. The tendency to become rostrate or melanistic differs, as certain species seem not to be susceptible at all or at least
less susceptible to rostration and melanism than other species.
There seems to be no predominance of any sex in rostrate cowries; the radula evidently does not differ from that of normal
specimens.
Certain specific names are persistently used in literature, despite their invalidation by the I.C.Z.N. some 10 years ago. As
I was one of the culprits in using two invalid names in my Catalogue of Living Cypraeidae, I thought it advisable to make the
necessary corrections.
By opinion 261 (published 10th August, 1954), the work of L. T. Gronovius, Zoophylacium Gronovianum, 3 parts, 1763 - 1781,
and F. C. Meuschen's Index to Gronovius' work from 1781, have been rejected as non-binominal. This will invalidate the
following names:
luhuanus,toribellum,exporter,whole sale,murex zamboi,haliotis asinana,maxima clam,fashion,pinkrode,luhuanus
Luhuanus shell tiles cyprea pappa paua lei lambis milladeda hammershell black leaf decoration telena vergata shell lampshades shell tiles capiz inlay paua dyed white rose shells accessory conus aulicus strombus mariabelles shark tooth.
luhuanus
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