>Jose got some Cypraecassis tenuis in Ecuador and some were alive.
>The shells were cleaned there so I did not see the animal. I noticed
>there was no operculum with the shells. I asked Jose and he said he
>cleaned himself some of them and checked thoroughly the animal, but
>nothing was found.?

Hi Marcus,

I have only found and cleaned two specimens, a large and fairly small
one, but neither had an operculum, and I looked everywhere for one.
We also found several Conus in Mexico that had either no operculum or
it was so small that we could not see it.  And oddly, we saw several
Strombus raninus in Abaco this August that had no operculum. I have
to wonder how they survive!

Best regards,
Jim

--