Dear Tom,
 
The Scanphander lignarius which was on the auction of Bret Raines
came from me, but as he sent me beautiful shells for the museum
in Innsbruck, I mailed him other shells for him, for a museum or
for the auction - to use after his decision.
There are some troubles again to which family Scaphander
lignarius belongs.
Family Scaphandridae (see Guido Poppe and Yoshihiro Goto:
                                          European seahells - Verlag Christa Hemmen)
 
or
 
Fam. Cylichnidae (see checklist delle specie della fauna italiana:
                                part of Gastropoda, Opisthobranchia,
                                Divasibranchia, Gymnomorpha) by Daniele  
                                Bedulli et al. - Eidzione Calderini, Bologna, 1995
 
To the same family are belonging: genus Cylichna and genus Roxania.
 
The European distribution of Scaphander lignarius (Linnaeus, 1758)
is from Iceland south to the Canaries and into the Mediterranean
and Adriatic. They live from the sublittoral zone down to 700 m
and on mud or sandy bottom.
 
The three are the gastric plates which you can find within the soft-parts
but I don't know how they are arranged. A slender, small and pale
Scaphander is named Scaphander hidalgoi, but is a synonym.
Scaphander are carnivour and they are important food for
haddock (shellfish).
 
I have got several specimens of my collection by my Italian friend
Loris Perini, Gruppo Naturalisti Linneo, Chioggia near Venice.
His address is:
Loris Perini
 
Borgo San Giovanni, 590
I - 30015 Chioggia (Venezia) / Italia
 
As the group doesn't have computer or e-mail address, you should
contact them for eventual changing material. They have very
nice material from the Mediterranean and can get Scaphander
also in great numbers by fishermen. They collect all kinds of shells,
from Mediterranean to exotic and fossils.
 
Hope to hear from you as soon as possible
 
with best greetings
Helmut Nisters
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
homepage: www.netwing.at/nisters/
----------
> Sarah,
>
> Well, you and Mark seem to have hit it off real well.  Remember, when the
> both of you are able to look for seashells passing by in the big, 1,000
> foot wave I'll be sitting at 5,400 feet wondering why I am not getting
> Peter Jennings live from New York.  Maybe New Mexico will once again have
> an inland sea like the big one during the Permian.  But, because I take
> the short view, I don't think I'll cancel my trip to the coast next
> month.
>
> Speaking of shells, and we were weren't we, I just got my notice from
> Bret Raines on the shells I successfully bid on during his last auction.
>  He also apologized for some minor glitches in his program during this
> latest auction.  Well glitches happen, in the meantime I believe his
> auction is a wonderful use of the net.  There is a nice variety of
> species and prices and half of the enjoyment for me is looking at some
> really nice images of shells I may never have seen before.
>
> In fact I just purchased a Scaphander lignarius (Linnaeus, 1758).  This
> is a first in this family for me and I don't know anything about them.
> My references (Eisenberg) state they are carnivorous, feeding on
> scaphopods using gizzard plates.  I assume these gizzard plates grind
> together to bust up the prey - is this correct?  The shell I purchased
> comes with three plates.  Are all three gizzard plates? How are they
> arranged in the living animal?  There is no reference to an operculum so
> I assume (again) that all three are the grinding gizzard plates.  I
> realize these are not really uncommon shells, so if anyone knows a good
> reference that covers some of the aspects about the life history of this
> shell, please let me know.
>
> The more I learn about mollusks, the more incredible they are and the
> more I realize I just don't know much about this huge group of animals.
> We tend (in this hobby) to center on the shell, but there are some
> incredible aspects to the natural history of these guys.  In this vein, I
> applaud Hawaiian Shells News for their continued work to first of all
> just keep a magazine going on the web and secondly for publishing many
> in-depth articles on an individual species with photographs of the living
> animal.  Similarly, the pages of the Jacksonville Shell Club, Guido
> Poppe, Eddie Hardy, and George Sangiouloglou all have a variety of images
> - some of which portray the living animal.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a
> shell guy and I want to see a picture of the shell, but an additional
> picture of the living animal is often fascinating.
>
> Tom Eichhorst
>
> P.S.  Carlos, if you are reading this, I promise to get that list to you
> soon, really!  Trust me.
>