Patrick in Indy,
        Try Bratcher & Cernohorsky's book LIVING TEREBRAS OF THE WORLD.
It's a great reference and both authors are well respected for their work.
You should be able to get a copy at MAL DE MER.  Good luck. Yes, Terebras
are difficult.
Dan, In Eureka


>To any Terebra experts out there,
>
>    Last August, I collected several Terebra species at Jaco Beach, Costa
>Rica.  Although they were beached, they're in decent shape.  I got Keen's Sea
>Shells of Tropical West America to identify the shells, but the book is old
>(1958), and the black and white pictures of terebras are smudged, and it does
>not help there are so many species of Terebra in the region.  Frankly, I am
>stumped. I'll try my best to describe two of them.
>    The first kind is small from 14 to 23mm in length.  It seems there is no
>subsutural band of nodes or any other sculpture, but there is a distinct
>brown band under the suture.  The body whorl is almost twice as long as the
>rest of the whorls.  There are weak axial ribs that are present on every
>whorl, but stronger on the earlier whorls.  The most distinguishing feature
>are very thin, wavy brown lines that run axially over the off white surface
>of the shell.
>    The second kind is between 22 and 25mm in length.  This has a very
>distinct subsutural band of small rectangular white nodes that actually
>protrude a little from the surface of the shell.  Between each node is a
>small area of creamish brown.  There are 14-16 moderately strong axial ribs
>per whorl, and a faint spiral sculpture on all of the whorls, about 12 on the
>body whorl.  The color is a creamish white with many light brown axial
>stripes.  I'm thinking it is T. variegata.
>    If you know your Terebridae and need more info than my terrible
>descriptions give, e-mail me privately and I will either send a picture or
>the actual specimen.  Any help will be greatly appreciated.
>
>Thanks in advance,
>Patrick in Indy

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Dan & Hiromi Yoshimoto
1164 Vista Dr.
Eureka, California
        95503-6018
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