-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von:    Ardeth K Hardin [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Gesendet am:    Mittwoch, 6. Januar 1999 22:28
An:     [log in to unmask]
Betreff:        Re: question
 
The state shell of Texas is the Lightning Whelk or Busycon contrarium.    I
noticed in RossGundersen's new book the Lightning Whelk is called Busycon
sinistrum   ?????
Ardeth
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Dear Ardeth,
 
S.C. HOLLISTER write in "A review of the genus Busycon and its allies - Part 1" 
(Palaeontographica Americana, Vol. IV, 1958, pp. 86-87):
  " Burnett Smith  (1939) placed tentatively the common sinistral form under Conrad's 
contrarium, a form well represented in the Miocene of North Carolina. I have given extended
study to Smith's suggestion, which has been adopted by several authors in recent papers,
and for this purpose have had a large range of specimens of Miocene, Pliocene, 
Pleistocene, and Recent horizons for review.
The round-shouldered B. contrarium is certainly not the same form as the  
tuberculated of spinose shell of Recent fauna. I am disposed therefore, to name
this Recent shell B. sinistrum, rather than to leave it in an equivocal position under a name 
which was given by Conrad to a different shell.
Dodge (1957) follows Burnett Smith (1939), Rehder and Abbott (1951), and Abbott (1954)
in placing this shell under Busycon contrarium (Conrad, 1840). He considers Conrad's 
type specimen, described as having "length 4 inches" as being a "subadult" individual.
Conrad's holotype is lost. I have the lectotype before me. It has six and one-quarter
whorls thought it is but 81 mm long. The lectotype is thus an adult; and hence a four
inch shell would also be an adult. It is a different shell from B. sinistrum. It will be
dealt with more completely in Part II of this paper, where it will shown to be limited to 
the Miocene."
Regards
Gert Lindner