Well, if anyone knows where to get PI micro-stuff, they are keeping
quiet about it- a pity but that's the way she goes sometimes!!
 
I would like to ask the list's "evolutionary" taxonomists about
Turridae: There must be liteally hundreds of small Turridae spp living
in rather similar habitats in small areas of the Phillipines (I've found
about 200 spp in micro/mini-shell washings from corals and Spondylus
from one small locality alone!).  Why is the Turridae family so good at
speciation- filling a large # of very similar niches in close proximity
to each other??  Has anyone done good, hard-core research on this or
related Questions?
 
Another Turridae querry: Many of the spp found, all over the world, seem
to exist at very, very low population levels (adding considerably to the
taxonomic nightmare they pose!!)- often, the majority of spp present in
even large samples, are represented by one or two specimens, while the
more common spp tally into the hundreds of representatives (usually
showing remarkable variation, however!).  Why is the spp frequency so
strongly skewed (certainly not anything appraching a "Bell Curve"!!!),
and how do tiny molluscs find each other to mate, at such low
densities??  Do they have incredibly powerful phemerones?
 
                                                                        -Ross M.