Hi,
Although I'm by no means a Cypraea expert, I havebeen looking at this
particular question in more depth. Everything Moshe said was true about
Lorenz's (original) view on C. (m.?) donmoorei. However, about six to
twelve months ago I found a note by him on his web site in which he
acknowledged C. mus donmoorei as a subspecies of C. mus independent of C.
mus bicornis. This note has disappeared form the web site, however, so he
possibly changed his mind, although he still offers C. donmoorei
However, Lorenz's "Alternative checklist"
http://www.cowries.net/checklist/alternative.html lists C. mus mus, C. mus
bicornis, and C. donmoorei.
On the other hand, his "Iconography" lists donmoorei as a forma of C. mus
bicornis: http://www.cowries.net/checklist/alternative.html
heimel
<heimel@NETVISIO To: [log in to unmask]
N.NET.IL> cc:
Sent by: Subject: Re: The Status of C. Siphocypraea (or
Conchologists of Muracypraea) donmoorei
America List
<CONCH-L@LISTSER
V.UGA.EDU>
05/22/01 03:13
AM
Please respond
to Conchologists
of America List
Dear Ross,
thank you for returning to this question.
If C. donmoorei is a form of C. mus transitional forms should be known to
cowry students. Even if the former is a subspecies transitional forms still
could be found. It will be very interesting to hear about information of
this kind.
E. Petuch described a new species Cyp. donmoorei in 1979 (Bulletin of
marine
science, 29(2):216-225) after comparing differences between the new species
and Cyp. mus in shell morphology, anatomy of living animal (mantle
structure, head region, dorsum of foot, radula) and ecology.
I did not find in lists of cypraeoidean literature for last 30 years a work
questioning this description, but maybe I overlooked something. So I think
Cyp. donmoorei is a valid species until opposite views will be proved.
Eduard Heiman
-----Original Message-----
From: Ross Mayhew <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: יום שני 21 מאי 2001 06:41
Subject: Re: The Status of C. Siphocypraea (or Muracypraea) donmoorei
>Since nobody has answered Moshe's enquiry, i will take a stab at it,
>although i am certainly not as qualified as some: Cyp. mus S.S. has a
>rather limited range on the east side of the range of its larger form
>Cyp. bicornis Sow. 1870 (donmoorei Petuch, 1979 is a synonym of
>bicornis) - right up there on the edge of Venezuela. Bicornis has a
>very well developed margin (usually with a much broader and attractive
>pattern than mus S.S.) which has a heavy calus anteriorly, which often
>forms 1 to 3 prominant tubercules. Many dealers (myself included, i
>blushingly admit!) like to play around with the nomenclature a bit, and
>call specimens with two well-formed tubercules "donmoorei bicornis", and
>the rare examples of three tubercules "tricornis", just for the sake of
>clarity, since most collectors are by now familiar with Petuch's name
donmoorei.
>
>Hope this clears things up!
>
>>From the great warming-up North (high today was 17!!);
>-Ross.
>
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