Hi Jim,
Great shots of  the Spondylus. I always appreciate your contributions to the
List.
As to identifying the difference between princeps and leucacantha, the
easiest way is to look at the internal hinge area. Princeps has a brownish
staining in the hinge area while leucacantha is white. Luecacantha is s
usually a peachy colored shell with white spines and usually occurs in
deeper water. Also, the spines on princeps are more spatulate
Hope this helps.
Your friend,
Paul
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Miller" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, October 07, 2000 10:59 AM
Subject: Baja Spondylus


> Greetings all,
>
> Seems a little early in the year to be getting so chilly, doesn't it?
Well,
> to warm you up, I've posted some shots of the Spondylus I found in the Sea
> of Cortez in September. What a task to clean these things!! But I was
> amazed at the range of colors. One spot was literally carpeted in
Spondylus
> stretching off into the distance, but it was at 92 feet, and we had
already
> been down our maximum time, so I grabbed some of the smaller, spinier
> specimens and headed up. Unfortunately, we never did return to that
> particular spot, but I found several others in a different location at
> about 65 feet, though in this spot, the specimens were more widely spaced.
> There were many absolutely huge specimens there, but they had very few
> spines and looked quite beat up, so we just got the smaller ones. If
anyone
> ever had doubts, Spondylus is doing quite well in the area around lower
> Baja. And this is an area that is quite accessible to divers and indeed
> thousands of divers visit these areas each year. Had we wanted to hire a
> charter, we could have brought up many hundreds of Spondylus, and still
> left the majority there! I believe most of these are Spondylus princeps,
> but a few may be S. leucantha. Maybe someone with more experience can
> clarify this. The photos can be viewed at:
> http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=412573
> in the BAJA SPONDYLUS album. I will also be posting some other finds (in
> Seashells 6), as well as some gorgeous sunset photos this weekend (in the
> VACATION folder).
>
> Best regards,
> Jim
>
> Jim Miller
> Tallahassee, Florida
> [log in to unmask]