>Dear Andrew,
>
>Thanks for taking the time to look through so many of my micros and
>offering your ideas on their IDs. I'm hoping that some of them can
>be narrowed down as you've done and perhaps named by a specialist. I
>think there's value in having these images on the internet since
>there's a scarcity of them.

Absolutely. The majority of molluscan species are micros, and they
are usually virtually unrepresented in popular literature or are
poorly-illustrated (eg Abbott 1974)... and when they do occur, may
well be misidentified anyway.

Okutani 2000 is a major work in this regard, even though there are
taxonomic errors (eg most of the Capulus "sp" are actually synonyms
of C. danieli). With modern photographic equipment, hopefully
malacophotomicrography will result in a plethora of new knowledge!

>For instance, someone (I don't know who) will instantly recognize
>such a distinctive shell as the putative "Lambis juvenile" on
>http://z14.invisionfree.com/Conchologist_Forum/index.php?showforum=32
>
>But I couldn't find anything on the web by googling for combined
>"protoconch" and "Lambis". For the many shellers who are quite
>familiar with common adult shells, it's interesting that few
>recognize some of these shells at an early stage of development.
>Myself included.


Interesting specimen! That's assuredly not a stromboid. At first
glance it would appear to be a Pedicularia, but I think cypraeoid
protoconchs have diagonal cancellation, as do some turrids.

I've unsharp-masked the images & darkened them, then increased
contrast, and can now see that the entire protoconch II is
cancellate. I can see the protoconch's terminal varix, which has two
strong labral projections (to borrow from ammonoid terminology,
lappets). I think you'll find this to be a juvenile
Muricidae: Coralliophilinae, one of the more-"abnormal" (again in
ammonoid terminology, heteromorphic) forms such as perhaps
Rhizochilus or possibly Rapa or Magilus. Perhaps those with
comprehensive coralliophiline collections might be able to check on
this?

My own Pedicularia and muricids are inaccessible at the moment...

I have looked for my Bandel literature, but it seems to have walked.
It includes a sizable paper on protoconchs, with numerous SEM
illustrations... indispensible for identification. Now, WHERE is it??
--
Regards
Andrew

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