Dear Sue et al.,

Re: "Argonauta hians Solander"

Firstly, although I was skeptical it would work, I was able to submerge a
specimen of A. hians in freshwater (my kitchen sink), and, later, after giving
it more thought, in a bowl with (artificial) seawater.  It dropped to the
bottom in both instances - thus Paolo's benthic hypothesis is supported.

Secondly, let me touch on the matter of Solander as author of this taxon:

Lady Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland, died in 1785 leaving
extensive and valuable collections, not the least of which was of shells.   The
Rev. John Lightfoot (1735-1788), her librarian and chaplain, compiled and
annotated a list of her curios.   This 194 page, 4156 lot inventory was printed
early the next year and served as the catalogue at the auction of her
collections from late that May to June 18 (Lightfoot, 1786;  Dance, 1966;  Kay,
1965;  Rehder, 1967).  Allison Kay (1965; p. 10) gave convincing evidence that
Daniel Solander, a pupil of Carl Linnaeus (in 1761 ennobled as Carl von Linné),
a naturalist who curated material in the duchess collection, first penned many
of the names employed by Lightfoot, but only in manuscript form.  Until 1965
most attributions for the "Portland Catalogue" nomina were to Solander, but,
after Kay's report, the consensus among malacologists is that Lightfoot is the
proper authority.

Although a substantial number of zoological names were validly proposed by
Lightfoot in this "Portland Catalogue," only a handful of workers in the 18th
and 19th centuries put them to use, often without proper acknowledgement.
Even the work of Sherborn (1902; later corrected), which purported to list all
the zoological names introduced from 1758 to 1800, listed none of these
names.   Tom Iredale was the first to specifically wrest the names from near
oblivion.   William Healy Dall (1921) investigated the "Portland Catalogue"
mollusks and presented selections of the Lightfoot text, which was always
brief, but often cited an illustration in an earlier work or two.

A more exhaustive and definitive treatment was provided by Rehder (1967), who
edited out 15 species names as nomina nuda (nude names) due to lack of palpable
shell specimens (holotypes or syntypes) or cited illustration(s).   The author
added five molluscan species names overlooked by Dall and proceeded to pare the
total (111) as follows: 39 junior synonyms (species validly named prior to the
"Catalogue");  three junior homonyms (names selected by Lightfoot but used by
prior authors); nine nomina dubia (descriptions and illustrations insufficient
to diagnose the species) and three nomina oblita (forgotten names; not employed
in the literature between 1917 and 1967).   This reduction left 57 available
species and two generic names for Recent mollusks attributable to The Rev.
John Lightfoot.   Rehder's systematic list at the end of his paper omitted the
valid species Subninella undulata and Strombus sinuatus, which were given
proper (and favorable) treatment in the text.

A few years back, the late Joanne Lightfoot (captivated by, but no relation to,
the Rev.) and I worked on these names and came up with the following list of
available molluscan names from the "Portland Catalogue" (separate posting):

More than you wanted to know??? (references on request),
Harry


At 09:38 AM 9/1/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>Thanks to all who pointed a newbie to many sources of information. I am now
>on my way to identification of my collection, or most of it. I have a couple
>of shells I haven't found on any dealer lists and would appreciate any
>further help anyone could offer. One shell has the following description:
>Argonauta hians Solander, trawled by commercial fishing boat at 60 fathoms,
>silt bottom off Chipei Tao, Pescadores Is., Straits of Taiwan, March 1971. I
>don't have a millimeter measurement conversion at the moment, but there are
>five of them and they're 2 inches long. They are paper-thin but in great
>shape.
>My question is : What is the taxonomy of this one so I can do a more
>efficient search?
>Also, to the one who replied with the greeting, "Dear Dr. Gulley," I am
>flattered, but have not attained that degree!
>Thanks again,
>
>Sue Gulley


Harry G. Lee
Suite 500
1801 Barrs St.
Jacksonville, FL 32204
USA
Voice:  904-384-6419
Fax:  904-388-6750
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Visit the Jacksonville Shell Club Home Page at:
www.jaxshells.org

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