I had thought of Thiaridae or something similar and so I looked in my 1st
edition of Brown's "Freshwater Snails of Africa and their Medical
Importance" and didn't find any picture that looked really similar to my
shells. Yesterday evening I looked through pictures of West African
Terebrids on www.gastropods.com and found that mine look very much like
Hastula (Impages) aciculina (Lamarck 1822). So maybe my aunt was mistaken
about where she had collected them.
Thank you to all who helped!

> -----Ursprungliche Nachricht-----
> Von: Conchologists of America List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]Im
> Auftrag von Andrew Grebneff
> Gesendet: Friday, August 29, 2003 2:04 AM
> An: [log in to unmask]
> Betreff: Re: Hastula from West Africa
>
>
> >Hello all,
> >
> >since several years I am puzzled with three shells my aunt
> collected in the
> >Belgian Congo some 46 years ago. Though she swears she collected
> them near
> >Matadi, which is a bit upstream from the Congo river estuary,
> they look like
> >Terebrids to me. The most similar species I found in the
> Compendium (and the
> >internet) is Hastula cinerea (Born, 1778) from the Western
> Atlantic. So this
> >is my question: is there a subspecies or a close relative of H.
> cinerea on
> >the eastern side of the Atlantic, and do Trebrids possibly live
> in brackish
> >waters?
> >Many thanks in advance
> >Michael
>
> Sounds like Melaniidae to me. These are cerithioids which do look
> much like terebrids. These usually have a thin but dark
> olive-greenish periostracum; the shell itself is often flesh-colored
> with axial brown markings. They may develop a thick metallic-seeming
> black coating. Some are smooth, others gemmate or nodulose. Very
> closely related to Thiaridae and like them live in slightly brackish
> and entirely fresh waters. Common in many areas in the tropics.
> --
> Andrew Grebneff
> Dunedin, New Zealand
> 64 (3) 473-8863
> <[log in to unmask]>
> Fossil preparator
> Seashell, Macintosh & VW/Toyota van nut
> I want your sinistral gastropods!
> -----------------------
> Q: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation.
> A: Why is top posting frowned upon?
>