Dear Emilio and sinistral and/or cowrie fanciers,
Since you have been left high-and-dry in cyberspace in the recent campaign
for info- on sinistral Cypraeovula, let me cough up some of the notes I
have accumulated over the last 33 years (the first sinistral cowrie came to
[published] light in 1967; four years after Franz Alfred Schilder
pronounced "nobody will find a sinistral cowry"):
C. capensis: To the two shells collected by Mariette Jearey
<http://home.sprynet.com/~wfrank/jearey.htm>, add the specimens reported by
(1) S. Peter Dance (1972), collected by Viva Armstrong in 1970 at Sunrise
on Sea, RSA and later in the collection of Enrico Caponetti (Naples,
Italy), (2) Gwen Pini's (Innisfail, Australia) shell, apparently collected
not long afterwards at Jeffreys Bay, RSA, and (3) a specimen in the
collection of Luigi Raybaudi Massilia illustrated by Burgess (1985). No
two the same (I looked at all three illustrations closely). That makes five.
C. edentula: My shell is probably not the same as one (possibly more)
cited by Bruno deBruin (1994) and one (possibly the same as Bruno's) cited
by Pat Burgess (1985). Conclusion: probably two or more.
C. fuscodentata: Same situation as above.
C. fuscorubra (forgive me if this isn't a Cypraeovula; I am quite ignorant
of the generic-assignment-du-jour): One collected in 1994 by, and reported
that year by, Bruno.
There may be more in the pages of The Conoisseur, a slick periodical
published by Massilia, which I regrettably lack in my library.
No matter how you split it, there is a disproportionate number of South
African cowries among the small number of sinistral shells of the
Cypraeidae known to us.
I can provide references on request.
Harry
At 11:36 AM 6/24/00 -0400, you wrote:
>Hello!
>Hi to all,
>
>I am trying to do a head count on
>sinistral coiled Cypraeovula from
>South Africa for inclusion on my
>upcoming website on the
>Endemic Cypraeovula of South Africa.
>
>Could anyone with information as to
>specimens/location[recent] please
>let me know. Recent [as of date]
>location is important as specimens may
>change hands and I would not want to do
>a multiple count of the same one.
>
>Need:
>Species and location [either personal
>coll or museum]
>
>Dr. Lee has one each sinistral edentula
>and a fuscodentata.
>A good start I suppose!!
>
>Later,
>
>Emilio Jorge Power
Harry G. Lee
Suite 500
1801 Barrs St.
Jacksonville, FL 32204
USA 904-384-6419
<[log in to unmask]>
Visit the Jacksonville Shell Club Home Page at:
http://home.sprynet.com/~wfrank/jacksonv.htm
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