Dear Antonio,
Do you have Bartsch's treatment of the Palawan Passage
Amphidromus?....Can't remember the full citation and my library is at
home....he describes several new forms....all the same thing, of
course.  Many moons ago I took a small pumpboat (a little outrigger with a
lawn-mower engine and barely wide enough for me to sit in) from Balabac all
the way to Rio Tuba, Palawan (3 days of constant and very necessary bailing
of water out of the "boat"..... no room for provisions so the "Captain" and
I had rice and then rice for dessert 3 meals a day.....and got a 6-month
long case of girardia on Bugsuk......the trip was a memory-maker)....I
collected on many of the islands in the passage.  Every island still with
Amphidromus had several color forms which one would call distinct if they
only had a few shells......

I never got to Amphidromus country on southern Palawan Island, as there
were some military issues when I was there.  I can't comment on those
populations.

A. entobaptus was still fairly common on northern Palawan proper and in the
Calamianes Group to the north.....very distinct, large, white to very, very
faint yellow.....

I'd like to see an image of your giant specimen from southern
Palawan.....Sounds like entobaptus in size.....  and as I said, that
species does occur on Palawan Island, not just on the Calamianes.  Your
dealer might be off on the location....or since southern Palawan is so
poorly know, there may be a population down there too.....who knows?

Kurtles


Mr. Kurt Auffenberg
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