Hey, Jim;-
   Well, maybe it is leopardus. (What do I know?) At any rate, we still need an answer. What good does a tiny perk do for a shell that it can't protect?
   El Q
>
> From: Jim Miller <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 2004/02/19 Thu PM 11:31:33 EST
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: 'Percs
>
> >This here's the Question man.
> >  I have a Conus literatus. It is about nine inches tall. So is its
> >opening. It has a perk. The perk is about one inch. The question is:
> >what the hecky darn good does such a small perk do?
>
> A nine-inch Conus litteratus? Are you sure it's not a C. leopardus?
> Those get pretty big, but I've never seen a C. litteratus above maybe
> 4 to four and a half inches.
>
> However, the answer to your question is simple: It gives us something
> to glue onto that wad of cotton we've stuffed into the aperture.
>
> This past September, I found a 58mm Conus tessulatus in Baja. The
> operculum was so small I needed magnifying lenses (the kind jewelers
> use) to find it. It was so small it was darn near invisible.
> And how about those huge Cassis species (tuberosa, cornuta and so
> forth). Of what use could their small fragile operculums possibly be?
>
> Best regards,
> Jim
>

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