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Spondylus orange
Recently Mr. Trevor J. Sutcliffe, Mount Yokine (Western Australia) has sent me for examination, a Zoila venusta (Sowerby; of
67 mm which he and Mr. Milton East have collected by skin-diving in Geographe Bay, west Australia. The pale orange dorsal
blotches and the unspotted pink margins prove it to be a typical venusta. Besides, Mr. Ray Summers of Petaluma (California)
sent me a color photograph of a similar venusta of 73 mm, which had been collected at Busselton in Geographe Bay, and Mr. C.
N. Cate, Los Angeles (California) possesses another venusta of 69 mm, found in 60 feet off Binningup. Consequently the true
venusta lives in the same area as the dark spotted episema Iredale does, which spreads from Cape Naturaliste to Abrolhos Is.
(coll. Cate), and developed near Perth the dwarf race sorrentensis Schilder. Therefore Zoila episema should be classified as
[a] "morphe" of subspecific rank (see Schilder, 1966, Veliger 8:185) as it is sympatric with the closely allied Z. venusta
and hardly differs in structure, but distinctly in color without any intermediateds known up to now.
The cowrie Lyncina sulcidentata (Gray) is restricted to the Philippine Islands from Philippines to Kure. Nevertheless its
length varies considerably, viz. from 25 to 68 mm, and its relative breadth (expressed in per cent of length) varies from 62
to 83%. Such extremes, however, are rare; the "usual variation" is 32-48 mm and 68-75% respectively: this range comprises two
thirds of specimens approaching the mean and is approximately equal to the double standard deviation (see The Veliger 8:209,
1966).
In the diagram (page 6) 112 adult shells from various localities have been plotted by length against relative breadth: each
dot indicates one shell, the straight lines indicate the limits of "usual variation" in each character calculated by
excluding the extreme [one-]sixth on each end, and the circle passing through the four points of intersection theoretically
comprises about two thirds of shells approaching the center in both characters (40 mm, 71.5%).
The diagram shows two peculiarities: first the median (small circle in 38/72) is eccentric, as most specimens accumulate in
the left half of the diagram, so that the curve of variation in length becomes skew (as it is in many animals); second, there
is a distinct negative correlation between length and relative breadth, as the small shells are relatively broad, the large
shells more slender (as it is in most cowrie shells): for the upper left and the lower right areas outside the limits of
usual variation contain twelve specimens, but the lower left and the upper right corners contain none.
What happened from that point on is not too clear. I distinctly remember indicating to Betsy that our decompression
time/depth limit had expired and we would have to leave. The time in between the find and that moment is a complete blank. We
both agreed later that neither of us had been so shaken underwater before. The effect was worse than seeing a shark. At least
I had remembered what happened in such cases! After the dive, while sitting in the boat, an examination of the shells
revealed the fabulous beauty of the Strombs. They far exceeded the coloration and loveliness of the fresh fragments that had
been found in earlier diving. The shells were a myrid of color, ranging from the pink-purple of the protoconch, through the
russet rays on the lip, to the blue-brown of the back. The very active and strong animal was cream-colored with round light
brown spots on the foot and a brown proboscis covered with small, white spots. A pair of utterly fantastic almost human-like
eyes gave the mollusk a look of intelligence and personality. Frankly, the enormity of the find left us a bit breathless. We
had truly found the Philippine Strombus in his natural environment!
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