Dear shellers
 
There are a lot of German common names too. And some
are erroneous. I can tell an example.
 
They use the common names as mussel (bivalves) in the
German translation also for gastropoda:
 
Cypraea tigris: They call them Tigermuschel instead of
                           Tiger-Porzellanschnecke.
 
A small book of Hallwag was called: "Muscheln am Meer" ("mussels
from the sea-side"), although there were bivalves and gastropodas
in it.
 
For shell-collections, which I am building up for schools, I don't
use real common names, but I am looking for a good German
translation of the species, although this name doesn't really
exist. But in some books for classification you find the German
names too. A German translation of the species must not be
a common name in the sence as Italians created many common
names for some edible species.
 
Chamelea gallina and some orher species of
Veneridae, like Paphia aurea = vongole
Venus verrucosa = tartuffo di mare
Lithophaga lithopaga = datteri di mare = sea date
etc.
 
Any name exept the Latin scientific names - it makes nothing -
if you will choose for yourself, as some translations of the
scientific name are not very good, only that the translation should
nearly agree with the latin name.
 
Wey is Strombus canarium called Dog Conch. What' s the
reason for such a translation..
At the moment I dont find more examples, but I hopy you are
content with my answer.
 
yours Helmut Nisters
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