Hello Masashi and others,

The current expert on Haliotidae (in my opinion) is Dr. D.L. Geiger at

[log in to unmask]

(University of Southern California at Los Angeles)

He published "Recent Genera and Species of the Family Haliotidae in
Nautilus 111(3):85-116, 1998

According to that paper, diversicolor is valid, and aquatilis is a synonym.
And it ranges "from central to southern Japan and somewhat further
south....and has also been found ...from Bali to New Caledonia...but only
from localized upwelling areas"

I don't believe that there is any intended difference between diversicolor
and d. diversicolor, but others may know better.

The paper strongly indicates that the number of open holes is not diagnostic.


At 01:33 PM 5/8/01 +0900, you wrote:
>Dear ear-shell experts,
>
>The subspecific name of the cultured abalone in Taiwan appears to be
>confused in the literature, and I hope someone could help sort this
>problem out for me.
>
>The illustrated shell book by Chung-Hung Hu and Hsi-Jen Tao, 1995
>described the following three: $B!! (B
>Haliotis diversicolor, H. d. diversicolor, and H. d. aquatilis. These
>authors indicated that H. d. diversicolor was the cultivated one.
>
>Lo-Chai Chen (1990) Aquaculture in Taiwan, Fishing News Books, indicated
>that Haliotis diversicolor aquatilis (local name Gao karn, meaning nine
>holes) was the cultivated variety.
>
>I understand that H. d. aquatilis is a temperate form and it is
>distributed along the central Japan, while H. d. diversicolor is found
>in the southernmost part of Japan (it is an Indo-Pacific species).
>Taiwan is located in the south from Japan but the marine fauna of Taiwan
>tends to show the presence of temperate species, so it is hard to judge
>which subspecies might be the cultivated one.
>
>Thank you,
>
>Masashi Yamaguchi
>Faculty of Science
>University of the Ryukyus
>e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>http://www.cc.u-ryukyu.ac.jp/~coral/

John Wolff
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