Hello All.

    I realize by its very nature the isolation of the Hawaiian island
chain is likely to have less genetic diversity than organism populations
closer to the middle of population centers (i.e. the western Pacific for
many mollusks). Also, because the islands are 'fairly young' potentially
more of the populations there resulted from founders effect and have
inherently less genetic diversity.  What I'm interested in speculating
upon is why, specifically it seems to me, the Cypraea have so many species
in Hawaii that are huge (C. tigris, C. vitellus, C. maculifera for
example) and most other mollusks in Hawaii that have large Indo-Pacific
ranges are not similarly affected by this selection process.  Is it the
niches that are available (i.e. large volcanic boulders), the nature of
the predation, or some other factor?  Perhaps something odd like the
veliger stage of a larger Cypraea stays platonic longer and thus they had
a better chance to populate this remote island chain?

    Just wondering.  Thanks.


Doug

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