Thanks Don & Peggy:
Don your comments inspired me to check other resource for documentation.

Woods(1)list the Florida Hose Conch specifically by Genus & species name and
say the local Mayan word for it is: "Mai-Mulla".  Although 12 pages are
dedicated to mollusks what is notably absent from this publication is
Turbinella angulatum (Lightfoot) "Chank" which is extremely abundant there.

Of the four Malacological references in the bibliography listed only one
"Abbott 1974 - American Seashells 2nd ed" has a listing of the Chank but all
have a listing of the Horse Conch.  This leads me to question there shell
ID.  I will note that when ever I spent time in the Belizean Islands the
locals always referred to we called the Chank as a Horse Conch.

Vokes (2) does list P. gigantea from as far south as Station Group VI -
Cancun to the Belizé border, with a frequency of occurring at up to one
quarter of the sampling stations.

The Oregon survey (4) did not find P. gigantea south of Matamoros Mexico,
even though it covered the entire Texas, Mexico and more importantly all of
the Gulf coastal Yucatan peninsula in the same areas as Vokes (2) and
García-Cubas (3).

Conclusion, Although Pleuroploca gigantea (Keiner) is found in northern
Belizé waters it is apparently plays out and is replaced by Turbinella
angulatum and is probably not normally found much further south.  Whereas
Turbinella angulatum is found all the way around the Yucatan Peninsula from
Campeches' Laguna de Términos in the Gulf of Mexico (2,3,4) where it is soon
lost in dominance to the Horse Conch but still retains a modest presence all
the way to Texas (5).

Leslie

(1) Woods, Richard L.; S. T. & A. M. Reid 1988
Field Guide to Ambergris Cay Belize CA: Including Other Atolls, History,
Ship Wrecks, Maya Ruins, Botany, Biology, Geology, Blue Holes, Beachcomber
Tips, 176 pp, 60 il, SB(L)

(2) Vokes, Harold E. & Emily H. 1983
Distribution of Shallow-Water Marine Mollusca: Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico,
Tulane U, Mesoamerican Ecology Inst Monograph 1, Mid Am Res Inst Pub 54,183
pp, 50 pl, SB(L), Stations I-VI.

(3) García-Cubas, Antonio 1981
Mollusks of a Tropical Lagoon System in the Southern Gulf of Mexico/
Molluscos de un Sistema Lagunar Tropical en el Sur Del Golfo de México
(Laguna de Términos, Campeche), Pub Especiales Instituto de Ciencias del Mar
y Limnología, Univ Nacional Autónoma, 182 pp, SB(L)

(4) Springer, Stewart & Harvey R. Bullis Jr 1956
Collections by the Oregon in the Gulf of Mexico, Special Scientific
Report-Fisheries 196, US Fish & Wildlife Serv, Dec, 134 pp, SB(L, Stations
223 & 439-445.

(5) Pulley, Thomas E. 19??
Check List of the Marine Mollusks of Texas, University of Houston Department
of Biology, HCS, 18 pp, XE, SB(L)

------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Fla. Horse conch in Yucatan

Hi Les,

I saw lots of dead ones mixed in with the Strombus gigas and Turbinella
angulata down toward the bridge/ ferry/swamp crossing on the San Pedro side
of Ambergris.  I never saw any live ones, though.

Don

----- Original Message -----
From: "Leslie Allen Crnkovic" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, July 01, 2001 10:38 PM
Subject: Fla. Horse conch in Yucatan

> Hi Peggy:
> Thats good to know.
> Have you found then as far south as Belizé?
> I never did...
> Leslie