Andrew Grebneff wrote:

> Regarding extremely rare shells, I must agree with Guido Poppe. There are
> lots of new species out there waiting to be found, and he who finds the
> first specimen of one has a specimen of the first-equal rarest species. Any
> species will be extremely rare when first discovered, no matter that there
> mat be millions of specimens down there.

> Andrew

Essentially, I cannot disagree with that either.  However, I think that
shells are generally just as common as their habits allow them to be.  I
have noticed this on my serious collecting trips.

I believe one reason why many Scaphellas are uncommon is because they
are higher up in the food chain.  They have been known to prey upon
other shells.  Of course Scaphella junonia have been commonly hauled in
as bycatch by the commercial seafood industry.  Some of the areas which
they trawl have an incredibly abundant amount of seashells.  Therefore,
a higher amount of predators will be found along with them.  Other
predators like octopus will prey upon Scapellas and other mollusks.
Thus, this also will keep the number of Scaphellas in a given area down.

I wonder how many Andrews there are on Conch-l.

Andrew Dickson