Since writing my note about Crenavolva dondani this morning, I have
heard from Andy Rindsberg who tells me:

> Most of Stanford's natural history collections were transferred to the
> University of California (Berkeley) and the California Academy of Sciences
> within the last 30 years. The shells, modern and fossil, went to the
> Academy. And a good thing too, since Stanford's campus lies on the San
> Andreas Fault and the older sandstone buildings were not fully reinforced
> when the Loma Prieta quake hit a few years ago. The main campus is east of
> the fault, but the famous linear accelerator actually crosses it.


and from Donald Dan who writes the following, explaining the transferal
of the holotype and seconding Andy's information. He also tells the
story of the theft of the second known specimen:

> Most of what you wrote was accurate except that more specimens did not appear
> from the Philippines until around 1982, some 18 years after Cate named the
> shell.  Also,  it was Dr. Baldomero Olivera who shifting through a pile of
> trawled materials from Samar in my house, pointed out the shell to me as
> being something of interest.  That was in 1962 I believe.  Cate waited,
> without success, for 2 years for another specimen before naming.  Just about
> every year since 1964, Crawford Cate would write in his Christmas card to me
> inquiring whether another specimen has come up because he wanted physical
> proof that the lone specimen he used to describe the shell wasn't just a
> fluke.  Of course, he died without seeing another specimen.  Cate also
> described a shell, Crenavolva imitabilis in 1973 (from Okinawa, I believe)
> which turned out to be the same species.  The name imitabilis is now
> considered! a junior synonym of dondani.  C. dondani is also been found in the
> Indian Ocean.  In recent times, several C. dondani were trawled off Somalia.
> This species turns out to be a widely distrbuted shell.  A rich colony is
> recently being shelled off Olango Island Group, east of Mactan Island, Cebu,
> Philippines.  There, the shells are being taken by Hookah divers at around 30
> meters depth.
>
> The holotype, bearing a Philippine National Museum number, was originally
> deposited for safe keeping at the Standford Museum.  As you might know,
> Standford University decided to get out of the biological sciences and closed
> the Museum some time ago.  All the Museum's collection, including all the
> type specimens, were transferred to the California Academy of Sciences in San
> Francisco after the Standford Museum closed.  So the holotype now rests at
> the Academy today.
>
> Around 1982, some 18 years after the original description, a second specimen
> from the Philippines turned up.  I was very excited and borrowed the shell
> from my brother Victor's collection.  At the time, I was living in Chicago
> and commuted to New York weekly on a lengthy consulting contract.  I took the
> shell with me to New York on a Monday with the intention of showing it to
> Walter Sage while there.  Unfortunately, I was too busy to meet with Walter
> that week.  Friday came around and I went to a hotel across from the
> Pennsylvania Station to board a shuttle bus to the La Guardia Airport for a
> flight returning to Chicago.  While I was waiting in line to purchase the bus
> ticket, someone swiped my briefcase containing the shell.  So there went
> the second known specimen at that time.  Right about the same time, Marty
> Beals of Los Angeles obtained a third specimen from the Philippines.  With that, the identification of C. dondani became well established.
>
> So far, all the known sources for this shell seem to indicated that it lives
> in a moderatley deep fauna, around 30-50 meters and can be found by an
> experienced diver or by trawling/dredging.  With increased shelling and
> fishing activities, it is no longer the elusive shell it was before.
>

It appears that in my message I inverted the numbers in the date of the
finding of the Philippines specimens. That was in 1986, not 1968. That
is what Don is talking about in his first paragraph. Sorry for the
confusion.

If anyone would like to see the "synonymous" species, C. imitabilis, it
too is on Animals4Ever.com.

I do thank Don Dan for his gracious expenditure of time to inform us of
the history of this gorgeous little shell and I hope this is of interest
to some.

Lynn Scheu
Louisville, KY