Meeting Report: Mid-Atlantic Malacologists Fourth Annual Meeting

Mollusk enthusiasts converged at the Delaware Museum of Natural History
(DMNH) on 10th March 2001 for the Fourth Annual Meeting of the Mid-Atlantic
Malacologists. The 27 participants included amateur and professional
malacologists, graduate students, and workers from federal and state
agencies who came from five states, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New
York, and New Jersey, for this one-day meeting. There were participants from
five local shell clubs including Wilmington Shell Club, Jersey Cape Shell
Club, Central Pennsylvania Shell Club, New York Shell Club, and an
especially strong showing from the Philadelphia Shell Club. The seven talks
and three posters spanned the three major molluscan classes, gastropods,
bivalves, and cephalopods, and led to lively discussions. After the meeting,
14 participants spent several hours using the extensive mollusk research
collections and library at DMNH. Overall the meeting was very successful,
with ample opportunity for people to meet and catch up with colleagues.

Talks:
Timothy A. Pearce - Update on the Delmarva Land Snail Project. Tim is
continuing to map distributions of land snails on the Delmarva Peninsula. He
has doubled the number of land snail species known from Delaware.
Paula M. Mikkelsen - Searching for Pearls: the research behind an upcoming
exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. Together with three other
curators, Paula has been working on a pearl exhibit that will open in
October 2001 in New York (closing at The Field Museum, Chicago, in January
2003). Paula discussed and showed photos of a variety of pearl culture
methods from around the world including techniques for marine and freshwater
pearls.
Aydin Örstan - Mutants from the back yard. Toothed and untoothed forms of
the land snail Neohelix albolabris occur together in Maryland. Toothed forms
from a given locality tend to be larger than untoothed forms. He is
examining penial sculpture to check if they are the same species.
Robert Robertson - Gastropod higher taxa: a tale of five characters. The
five characters (pigmented mantle organ, ciliated strips, chalazae,
heterostrophy of the larval shell, and water repellency of the larval shell)
show some use in separating traditional prosobranch and euthyneuran taxa,
although some taxonomic groups have characters of both prosobranchs and
Euthyneura.
David Campbell - Bivalve Phylogenies: comparison of morphological and
molecular results. Results from molecular studies don't always match
conclusions from morphological studies. Molecular results from 18S DNA
suggest that many traditionally recognized groups are not monophyletic.
Elizabeth K. Shea - The proboscis of ommastrephid squid paralarvae. In this
family, the paralarval proboscis is a complete fusion of the two long
tentacles. As the paralarva develops, the proboscis becomes shorter, and by
the end of the paralarval development, the proboscis has split to form the
two long arms. Liz is putting together a paper on this subject for American
Conchologist that should be ready within the next few months.
Charles Sturm - The mollusks: guide to their study, collection, and
preservation. Charlie gave an update on this book he is editing. Many
authors have already completed their chapters, while other chapters are
still in progress. Many people and organizations have expressed interest in
the book. The book will probably be available in 2002.

Posters:
David Campbell - Phylogeny of fossil and Recent Bivalves using about 250
morphological characters, shows support for many traditionally recognized
groups.
Jay Cordeiro - Freshwater Bivalve Mollusks of the Sangha River, Central
African Republic. A 1998 expedition from the American Museum of Natural
History collected five species of the families Etheriidae, Mutelidae,
Sphaeriidae, and Unionidae along the Sangha River and its tributaries.
Eric J. Chapman and Robert S. Prezant - Freshwater Mollusc survey at West
Point Military Academy. They performed a qualitative survey of lakes, ponds,
streams, and roadside ditches using SCUBA, dip nets and seine nets. To date
they have found more than 30 species including the two unionids Pyganadon
cataracta and Elliptio complanata.

Other Participants: Susan Campbell, Mel Carriker, Albert F. Chadwick, Clem
Counts, Maria Counts, Louise Crowley, Phil Dietz, Judy Goldberg, Sue Hobbs,
Rich Kirk, John Kucker, Lois Kucker, Elaine McDonald, Mick McLaughlin, John
Plummer, Happy Robertson, John Wolff.

Timothy A. Pearce, Ph.D., Curator of Mollusks
Delaware Museum of Natural History
Box 3937, 4840 Kennett Pike        302-658-9111 x319
Wilmington, DE 19807-0937, USA    [log in to unmask]