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Subject:
From:
"Kevin S. Cummings" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Conchologists of America List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 18 Sep 1998 17:23:34 -0500
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>Date:    Fri, 18 Sep 1998 09:18:51 -0500
>From:    "Andrew K. Rindsberg" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: help!!!!, or Lampsilis straminea
>
>"Claibornensis" refers to Claiborne on the Alabama River, Alabama. Lea
>never visited Alabama, but Judge Tate in Claiborne sent him material at
>several times.
>
>Conrad's published localities are sometimes confused, for reasons that are
>now hard to discern. Wheeler's biography of Conrad includes a detailed
>reconstruction of his journeys in Alabama, which shows that his main
>collections were at:
>
>1. Prairie Bluff, Alabama River, Wilcox County
>2. Claiborne, Alabama River and Randon's Creek, Monroe County
>3. Various points in Clarke County, especially along the road from
>Claiborne to Grove Hill
>4. Erie, Black Warrior River, Hale County. Erie no longer exists, but was
>southeast of Eutaw.
>5. Various points from Tuscaloosa north to the Tennessee Valley
>
>He was also given material from other localities, including Tate's
>plantation in Wilcox County. I am somewhat surprised to hear that his
>Lampsilis straminea occurs along the Fall Line rather than near Claiborne,
>where Conrad sojourned at Judge Tate's residence for several months,
>collecting fossil mollusks from the bluff, which is one of the world's best
>Eocene sites.  By the way, Tate's house still stands--the only house in
>Claiborne to survive its abandonment after the coming of the railroads made
>most river ports redundant. It is known today as the Dellet House.
>
>So, here's my question for Tom Watters. The distributions of freshwater
>mollusks have changed since the 1830's, and I particularly draw your
>attention to the fact that the rapids at Claiborne (and elsewhere) were
>removed in the 19th century to aid navigation, incidentally changing the
>environment. Is it possible that L. straminea straminea could be found in
>the Claiborne area in the 1830's, or is this just another case of Conrad's
>localities getting confused between collection and publication? How would
>we ever know for sure? Is this sort of thing common in early works on
>freshwater malacology?
>
>Andrew K. Rindsberg
>Geological Survey of Alabama
 
Just to put my two cents worth in.
 
The type locality for Unio claibornensis Lea 1838 is the Alabama River near
Claiborne, Monroe County Alabama collected by Judge Tait.  The lectotype
was selected by Johnson 1974, and an Idiotype is in the MCZ 146969(1).
 
refs. Lea, I.  1838.  Description of new freshwater and land shells.
Transactions of the American Philosophical Society  6(N.S.):1-154 + 24
plates.  Johnson, R.I.  1974.  Lea's unionid types or recent and fossil
taxa of Unionacea and Mutelacea introduced by Isaac Lea, including the
location of all the extant types.  Special Occasional Publication, Museum
of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University  No. 2.  159 pp.
 
The type locality for Unio stramineus Conrad 1834 is "small streams in
south Alabama" (as pointed out by Tom) deposition of type unknown to me.
ref. (Conrad, T.A.  1834.  Descriptions of some new species of fresh water
shells from Alabama, Tennessee, etc.  American Journal of Science and Arts
25(2):338-343 + 1 plate.  [Reprinted in Sterkiana 1963. 9:49-50] )
 
Andrew is it Judge Tate or Tait as I have always seen it spelled?
 
Kevin
 
Kevin S. Cummings
Illinois Natural History Survey
607 E. Peabody Drive
Champaign, IL 61820
[log in to unmask]
http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/cbd/collections/mollusk.html

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