Hi All,

Sorry if this ends up being a dupe, but my new free-trial ISP
may not be a very good deal, since lots of my e-mails aren't
arriving, and the first copy I sent of this hasn't made it
back, either.

Conus geographus must be fairly common somewhere, but not in
any of the few places I've been.  They were evidently more
common in Okinawa at one time than in most other places, but
I'm sure our friend Masashi has an accurate opinion of the
current population there.

Conus geographus is uncommon in American Samoa.  I have found
only five live ones in over four years, and maybe twice that
many dead or beach shells.  That said, I have been able to
find a specimen on the two occasions that I have gone out
specifically looking for one.  While one was on top of the
reef near the reef edge, in an area with many holes going down
through the hard reef, most of them are found by snorkeling
outside the reef edge at night, typically in the caves or holes
in the reef face from 2 to 5 meters deep.  Hunting them here
requires exceptionally calm weather, and we only get that kind
of weather one or two weeks per year.  I can't foresee anything
short of a big change in weather patterns ever having a signif-
icant effect on the C. geographus population in American Samoa.

C. geographus evidently range from intertidal to quite deep.
The smallish one which stung Chuck Brugman a few years ago was
collected in about 40 meters of water.  Like Masashi, I haven't
seen any small juveniles here.  The smallest was probably over
50mm, and the live-collected ones ranged from ~80mm to 135mm.

Of the C. geographus "group," C. tulipa is most common, though
not abundant.  C. eldredi is next, if you count beach shells,
though we have never found a live one.  Then comes C. geographus,
based on the numbers above, and lastly C. obscurus, of which
only two have been found by my friends and myself in American
Samoa.

Cheers,



Don
Tafuna, American Samoa

Wesley M. Thorsson wrote:
>
> As a matter of interest, I would like to know CONCH-Lers opinion on the
> commoness of Conus Geographus.  I don't have the best shelling eye in
> the world, but I have collected on a goodly number of Pacific Islands in
> the past 35 years or so, and have only found several specimens.  As it
> is usually a shallow water species, I certainly would have found more if
> it were really common (whatever that definition of common is).  How many
> specimens do you see in a snorkle in suitable areas?
>
> Patty:  As to growing Conus.  Yes, it can be done if you know how and
> have the patience.  Frank Perron grew almost every Conus found in Hawaii
> from eggs.  He raised them to a juvenile stage as part of research.  He
> also collected data in situ about the growth rate of Conus.  I had
> several articles by Perron in past IHSN issues.
>
> Usually, venom is collected from live cones, maintaining them in an
> aquarium for almost their normal life expectancy (about a 2 years for
> Conus obscurus which I furnished to U. Utah for venom work.  Bruce
> Livett (on CONCH-L) and works in this nuclear biology area is well
> experienced in this field and has raised cones and milked them
> repeatedly for venom, and can comment further on this subject.
>
> I think you will find that a substantial number of CONCH-Lers are very
> interested in molluscan animals.  We are a very varied group covering a
> large field of interests.
> --
>                      Aloha from Wesley M. Thorsson
> Editor of Internet Hawaiian Shell News, a monthly Internet Publication
>            122 Waialeale St, Honolulu, HI  96825-2020,  U.S.A
>        http://www.hits.net/~hsn                 [log in to unmask]