Hi, Folks,

Here in Korea, the fishermen consider Neptunea quite tasty, but have
warned me to remove a certain white portion because it allegedly would
destroy one of my vital internal organs, but I could not figure out
whether it was my kidney or my liver.  They are very serious about it.
They were offended to learn that I buy Neptunea constricta, intersculpta,
arthritica, etc., from them just for the shells, and they insisted that
they are delicious (varying by species) but that you must remove that
portion thereof.

Some fishermen have told me that Ceratostoma burnetti and Pteropurpura
adunca are poisonous, inedible, but an old auntie tried to charge me for
some I picked up near her nets, as she claimed they were edible.  When I
argued that they were inedible, she insisted they were edible, but she did
not cause a fuss when I went ahead and took them anyway.

In a fish market in Naha, Okinawa, there were Tridacna that appeared to be
squamosa, for sale for eating.  As most of them were less than two feet
across, they may simply have been extra-frilly crocea.  The huge green
turbo's also are sold there, for consumption.

Someone in the subject stream mentioned stings by hornets or wasps as
perhaps not being venomous.  As anyone with a hymenoptera allergy such as
I have can confirm, they are referred to as having venom.  The "yellow
jacket" generally is the deadliest, although the allergy sensitivity
varies from person to person, by species.  I am neither a scientist nor in
the medical field, but the immunization program in which I participated
for several years supposedly had me injected with "whole venom extract."
Please be aware that the hornets and wasps, especially the jellow jackets,
are not interested in nor drawn to flowers; they are attracted by grease
and meat, especially around garbage and around fish-cleaning stations.

Chuck

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