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Shell madebelts
After an hour of surface decompression, our meter was at a safe reading. Over the side we went, each hoping to find something
better than the others. We were working on a sand and mud bottom with a few scattered rocks. On the bottom, we found a
fragile type of purple coral that crumbled when picked up. Also, a greenish-white type of coral was found that resembled
oatmeal when it was broken up. In this rubble and under the rocks, we found all of the shells collected. On the last dive,
some of this rubble was brought to the surface in bags to be sorted through at our leisure. It is just as interesting to go
through this rubble as it is to dive for the shells. The second dive was not as long as the first because everyone was
working harder. Also, each diver was not sure his shells would be in his glass jar in the boat if he came up last. We are an
honest group but we are collectors. After everyone was back in the boat, a count of the shells taken was made. A total of 28
Cypraea gaskoini, 3 C. chinensis, 2 C. rashleighana, 1 Cymatium clandestina, 7 Vitularia, 3 Cymatium echo, 4 Conus pertusus
and a wide variety of Mitra and other Conus species were in our collecting jars.
So ended this, a truly record day!
John H. Roberts, Jr. offers the following Helpful Hint:
I often find myself deluged with questions regarding methods I employ in cleaning shells. My latest method, and most
successful, is the use of Pineoleum[tm], a household disinfectant. I use Pineoleum[tm] full strength and soak my shells (all
types) for several days before removing for cleaning. There is no etching or discoloration of the shell soaked in this
solution. For Cypraea, this is the finest yet. In most cleaning preparations, there is corrosive acid action. However, with
the oil base in Pineoleum[tm], a thin film of oil covers the shell, preventing any etching or discoloration. When the
interior of the shell is cleaned out, just wipe the external surface with a dry cloth and the Cypraea is just as it was when
found. There is no need for livening up a shell's coloring by use of silicon grease. This, I am told, is employed by some of
our Honolulu collectors.
L. chiragra, etc., or the violet spots of Cypraea chinensis will fade through boiling. Especially if the shells were not
washed and rinsed before, so that the boiling water does not contains salt, mucus or decomposed animal matter. So better
avoid boiling these shells. Some bivalves, especially such which come from muddy bottom, may change their colours through
boiling. Some Aplysiidae, who have a delicate, internal shell, shrivel and contract through boiling and this usually results
in a crushed shell. But cone shells, Mitra, Oliva, Terebra and most Cypraea can be boiled without harm to the colour.]
It is a pity that collectors nowadays strive only to possess the largest shells of each species and thus neglect the small
ones. Formerly, collectors would boast that they possessed both the largest end the smallest shells of a species. You will
see, for instance, that a dwarf Cypraea tigris of about 40 mm compared to one of about 150 mm is a surprising contrast worthy
to be exhibited in any collection.
The reason for my complaint is that by this preference for giants, scientific research is handicapped in defining the mean
size of a species from a certain region or from all parts of the world where the species occurs. As most local collectors
keep the rare, large shells for their own collections, the abundant medium sized and the rare, small shells are not
preserved. Then the local collectors pretend that the scientist is wrong when he indicates smaller figures for the average
size.
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.
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