Dear Sid and Harry,

Doh! Why SHOULDN'T I forget the shell depicted on the dustcover of Kay's Hawaiian Marine Shells! Of course this must be in Orbitestellidae.

I don't think the sculpture on my shell matches the radial ribs of O. regina. It's interesting that Kay says the sculpture is unlike Orbitestella bastowi, but doesn't say what that type species' is like.

A google search turned up an enormous online document that includes an illustration of Orbitestella hinemoa for "New Species of Mollusca from various dredgings taken off the coast of New Zealand, the Snares Islands, and the Bounty Islands" by Miss M. K. Mestayer in 1918. She described O. hinemoa (which is unlike my specimen) and complained that she was unable to find an illustration of the type species, O. bastowi. Does anyone have access to the original description or an illustration?

By the way, if anyone wants to go through this intriguing online document, you are brave and have a lot of time on your hands. It takes about 10 minutes to fill the page on broadband and the linked illustrations can be scrolled to view in their entirety but can only be printed in part due their size and formatting (at least on my computer). If you want to go back from the illustration to the main page, it'll take another 10 minutes. At least it's there!

http://rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz_51/rsnz_51_00_001830.html

David Kirsh
Durham, NC


>Subject: Re: tiny jewel from Arno
>
>David, I think it is Obitestellidae Orbistella regina Kay; depicted pp 92
>Hawaiian Marine Shells, Kay.
>
>Regards, Sid


"Everyone has a heart. Except some people."--Bette Davis

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