Dear Listers,

I'm back! Or at least trying to come back. 'Cause things are quite calm here
at work, I'm trying to read more than 430 Conch-L digests stored since
February 2001. From 2002 I need to read "just" 54 digests to zero it.

Since I was raised to a new role two years ago, my shell collection is on
hold. On the other hand I'm traveling a lot and I have nice adventure
stories to tell like a run away, swimming, from a cargo ship after a shell
collecting in Dili, East Timor.

Last weekend I was cleaning some shells collected in 2000 in my trip to
Hawaii and American Samoa, when I found something completely new for me. I
was cleaning a 11cm Conus leopardus from Waianae Beach, Oahu, when small
pieces of a "hard" white material came out attached to the soft parts of the
animal. The biggest of these parts is about 4cmx1.5cm large. It looks like
plastic of water cups and can be seen at
http://www.edumoreira.com.br/conchas/Conus/conusleopardus.htm. If you click
in the image, it will show a larger picture.

I would appreciate if anyone could tell me what is that.

Best regards from Brazil,

Eduardo Moreira
a melted cheese head
better loose by 27 than by 41, isn't it?

PS: those who are also go-karting nuts, may visit
http://www.edumoreira.com.br/