I would like to present two scenarios to the group and ask for your
opinions as to what is going on.  I have some of my own thoughts but
wanted to tap the collective experience of Conch-L members.
 
The first scenario relates to a donation made to me about 5 years ago.
The shells were collected dead on a beach near Naples, Florida.  The
person who collected them did so for the purpose of making a lamp.  This
was the only time that she had been to Florida, did not buy any shells,
and was given none by anyone else.  The shells that she did not use for
the lamp were put into a closet and forgotten for several years.  They
were given to me by this persons daughter.  She asked her Mom for them
when she heard that I was interested in shells.  All of the shells were
Floridian except for two.  There was one Stombus luhuanus (linne)
[Strombidae], one Planaxis sulcatus (Born) [Planaxidae], both Indo-Pacific
shells.  I had my friend grill her Mother as to any possible way that
these may have contaminated the collection; been added later, bought,
given to her by someone else while in Florida, etc, but she stated "the
only place they could have come from was the beach."
 
The second scenario deals with a donation made to the Carnegie last year.
A gentleman dropped off a collection of shells from Florida that were
unidentified.  The collection was supposedly Floridian shells that were
dredged.  I identified the material and there were 4 taxa that caused me
concerns.  The first was a lot of Liguus.  When I wrote to the donor, he
did confirm that these were given to him by someone and were not from the
dredged material.  The other three shells were Monodonta labio (linne)
[Trochidae], Strombus luhuanus (Linne) [Strombidae] and Turbo porphyrites
(Martyn) [Trochidae].  There was one of each of these shells.  The donor
stated that these had to come from the dredged material.  The material
came from several kilometers offshore and was collected from a scallop
dump.  He denied receiving any shells from others or purchasing any
shells.  These later three shells are Indo-Pacific.
 
I can find no reference to any of the Indo-Pacific taxa having established
populations in Florida or the Caribbean region, whether in printed
resources or on-line (for example Rosenberg's Malacolog 2.0).
 
THE QUESTION:  Where did these specimens come from?  How did they get into
these collections?
 
THE CHARGE TO CONCH-L:  Let your imaginations run wide.  We are good at
that! ;-)  Speculate as to what is going on.  Reflections as to the worth
of these two collections?  Anyone else have similar situations happen to
them?
 
I will thank you for your input in advance.  Let the fun begin!
 
Charlie
******************************************************************************
Charlie Sturm, Jr
Research Associate - Section of Invertebrate Zoology
                     Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Assistant Professor - Family Medicine
 
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