Dear Andrew
 
remember the names:
 
Capulus ungaricus
Natica stercusmuscarum
and so on
all humouristic names.
 
Helmut
 
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>
> Here's another humorous shell name: Capulus sycophanta Garrard, 1961.
> "Capulus" means "swordhilt" (this snail is shaped rather like a limpet),
> and a "sycophanta" is a sycophant, a social parasite. Capulus sycophanta
> lives attached to scallops, drilling a hole through the shell. By analogy
> with Capulus danieli (Orr, 19__), it might be to steal the scallop's food
> rather than to feed on the scallop itself. If so, then this is what
> biologists call a case of "antagonistic symbiosis", where one animal
> benefits from the association and the other is harmed.
>
> Personally, I always found the scallop genus Amusium to be amusing, but I
> don't suppose that the original author intended a joke.
>
> Andrew K. Rindsberg
> Geological Survey of Alabama
>
> References
>
> Garrard, T. A., 1961, Mollusca collected by M. V. "Challenger" off the east
> coast of Australia: Journal of the Malacological Society of Australia, v.
> 5, p. 2-36, pl. 2. (Not seen. Trusting Orr, see p. 12.)
>
> Orr, Virginia, 19__, The drilling habit of Capulus danieli (CROSSE)
> (Mollusca: Gastropoda): Veliger, v. 5, no. 2, p. 63-67, pl. 7.
>