Folks,
         Hello, I am new to the list and, typical of teachers, I have a
question.

         We have spent many wonderful days looking for interesting shells
and artifacts on Bavon Beach in Mathews County, Va, on the Chesapeake Bay.
Over the years, I've brought back a unique item that hubby identified as an
egg case for conches. The wash up on the beach during the spring, sometime
the beach is almost littered with them. The are each a long string with a
large number of round sacques attached to the string. Each round sacque,
when opened, contains a number of tiny white shells that resemble conch
cells. Usually the material of the round sacque is fragile and the sacques
almost crumble in your hand.

         I got one of the long egg cases from the beach last weekend and
brought it to class for biology. We are studying the animal Kingdom. (I
teach six home school kids age 9 to 17 whose mother died a while back).
This egg case was tougher than the others, and we had to use scissors to
get into the round sacques. Some had only sand in them, but the others had
the usual tiny shells.

         David, my 10 year old asked how big was the conch that laid this
string of egg sacques, and I had no answer for him. The whole string of
sacques would probably be 18-24", and each of the round sacques, are about
an inch across or less. Those near the ends are smaller. I did a google
search to try to find the answer to David's question with no luck, so I
thought I'd try this list.

         Does anyone know what it is? If it is an egg case, is it the
product of one female, or is it some kind of nursery?

         Thanks for any help you can provide.

                                 Anne Pemberton






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Anne Pemberton
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http://www.erols.com/stevepem
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org