Mel,
 
It is good to hear that Nucella lapillus has been found in a wider range of
colors on Long Island.   Many moons ago during the club's field work for
the monograph of Long Island shells, a limited number of specimens with
rather drab coloring had been recorded.  This is what was written up in the
field notes at that time.
 
Have you noticed whether this increase in the Nucella lapillus population
has sustained itself during the past few years?  Or are the populations
waxing and waning?   Remember how prolific Argopecten irradians was out at
Greenport  for so many years, and how quickly the population died out from
the red tide bloom in Peconic Bay?  Has the population ever re-established
itself?  Talking about variation in color and pattern -- that population
was incredibly varied -- orange, yellow, pure white, netted patterns, rays,
bands, everything inbetween, and of course, the ubiquitous slate gray
colored shells.
 
As was mentioned in the Amphidromus article, this seems to be a case where
the external color and pattern of the shell was more than likely influenced
by natural selection, e.g. extreme color polymorphism in a population
perhaps indicating that looking different from your neighbor is
advantageous, making it more difficult for predators to develop a search
image, such as color and contrast, to locate their prey.   But natural
selection could not overcome foul water which pretty much wiped out the
population.
 
Regards to everyone back on Long Island.
 
Rich
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Richard L. Goldberg
Worldwide Specimen Shells
email:  [log in to unmask]
homepage:  http://www.erols.com/worldwide
 
"My theory of evolution is that Darwin was adopted."
Steven Wright
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
At 07:41 AM 2/5/98 EST, you wrote:
>Hi Rich,
>        We have found the full spectrum of color ranges from solid bright
>yellow to
>dark purple. The range has expanded as far west as Shinnicock. My guess is
>that the eggs and sperm must be water swept and then colonies become
>established. They are prolific, that's for sure.
>                                                       Love to the family,
>                                                           Mel S.
>                                                           [log in to unmask]
>
>