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Shell hawaiian
Size and teeth: The mean length is 27mm, Width is 59% of Length, Labial teeth number 21 and columellar teeth number 20. (data
after Schilder, teeth are reduced to a shell of 25mm in length.) Dr. Schilder's measurements were based on 12 specimens
preserved in the Dautzenberg collection and other Museums. My own measurements of 21 specimens of bregeriana from New
Caledonia come very close to Dr. Schilder's figures.
Habitat: The exact locality of only 6 specimens could be verified. These were taken at Anse Vata near Noumea, and the
locality was clean sand bottom, with a profuse growth of long green weed, and the water was somewhat turbid in this area. The
shells were taken in 6 - 10 feet of water from under dead coral.
Description of animal of C. bregeriana (from Fiji specimens): The foot is deep orange anteriorly, gradually fading to a
creamy white as the rear of the foot is reached. The extreme posterior part of the foot is almost translucent. The mantle is
a smoky brown, smooth and mottled with minute white spots. The mantle papillae are short and branched, white in colour and
well scattered around the sides of the mantle, but absent towards the edges. The siphon is approx. 1/8" in length, well
recurved over the shell, cream in colour, and the edges of the siphon have a fringe of minute, black, marginal papillae. The
tentacles are long and slender end pale creamy-orange. Eyes are black and situated towards the outer edge of each tentacle.
The area between the tentacles is dark orange.
I did not find any record in literature as to previous description of the animal of bregeriana. However, I did find a
description of the animal of C. walkeri continens Iredale in Australian Cowries Part I by Iredale. (Aust. Zool. 1935). The
animal is figured in water-colour on a plate, and the description of the animal as given by Mr. Melbourne Ward is as follows:
"Mantle transparent milk white, papillae few and very short, the tips with very short tassels. Tentacles long, slender, pale
yellow, eyes apparent as black dots, proboscis salmon pink. Foot narrow, the tail does not extend beyond the shell when the
animal walks." The illustration shows the mantle as an obvious milky white mantle in contrast to bregeriana's smoky-brown
mantle. The mantle of a cowry animal will run through shades of one colour in the same species, but it may happen on very
rare occasions that one and the same species will exhibit a radically different mantle colour. Three specimens of C. limacina
were found in Fiji, which had a dusky black mantle, in contrast to its normal orange mantle. The three specimen were found in
a locality were C. staphylaea and limacina are represented in equal numbers. C. staphylaea always has a dusky black mantle,
and it might be possible that on this very rare occasion the two species might have interbred, and the offspring accepted the
parent's dominant colour of the mantle, which in this case was black, but accepted the shell characteristics from limacina.
Hybrids between these two species were found in Fiji, however, such an occurrence is rare. The resulting offspring or hybrid,
has a much reduced fertility and probably is not able to reproduce, otherwise we would not have separate species of limacina
and staphylaea in Fiji. (Dr. Schilder described hybrids between C. tigris and C. pantherina in The Veliger, Vol. 5, No. 2).
Take for example the splendid cone, Conus prometheus Hwass (which is considered to be the world's largest cone). This shell,
while not rare, is infrequently secured by the Tipos Indicenas tribes, being worn as both an ornament and symbol of wealth by
women of the tribe. The tops of the large cones are neatly sliced off and dangle from strings of beads or leather thongs down
the back of the wearer or hang between their breasts. As a well-to-do native will exchange as much as a full grown cow for a
fine specimen of this shell, it is little wonder that collectors find them difficult to obtain.
Also very popular are the smaller and often rare Cypraea of the region such as zonaria gambiensis, picta, sanguinolenta,
petitiana, and even the West African form of lurida which are formed into strings for head and neck decoration, suplimented
with the more readily secured Cypraea annulus.
To a dedicated collectors, such use of rarities may well seem a desecration of fine shells. However, one had best look at it
philosophically with the thought that the major purpose of shells (once the animal who created them has ceased to have use
for its home) is to bring pleasure to the possessor either asthetically or scientifically and who can say who enjoys them
the most, the native or the specialist.
many shells that come from deeper waters.
We left the Navy Base in Central Zambales at 5 A.M. on December 14, 1963 and traveled south to Subic Bay. There we boarded a
40' boat that I had chartered for the day. Ten Shell Collectors (including wives) and my two children went along on this
trip.
We traveled out of Subic Bay by 8 A.M. and around the southern tip of Zambales along the West Coast of Luzon or South China
Sea to the first big Bay on the coast.
It is called Selangium Bay and is nearly 2 miles long by 2000 feet wide, all reefs and quiet water. We anchored a few hundred
yards in the Bay in about 40' of water at 10 A.M. The reef came up at a 60 degree angle here and you are in 5 to 10 feet of
water. I was the first one in the water and soon picked up a large purple mouth Pleuroploca trapezium that my little girl had
seen from the boat through a view box (or lookie-lookie box). After handing her this shell I swam but a few yards and found a
large 8" pair of Lambis chiragra. I felt this would prove to be a good shelling spot, after such quick luck. (Altogether we
got 8 specimens of L. chiragra)
In two hours of diving for shells in sand, under rocks and breaking coral with a crow bar we all came up with about 100
species of shells over 1" long. On my way back to the boat the last rock I flipped over had a 4" tiger cowry under it much to
my surprise since most of the Cypraea tigris we get in the Philippine are 2" to 3". This was the largest specimen I had seen
outside of Philippines.
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