Dear Andrew, Bob, et al.,

Andrew asked about the range of Cymatium aquatile (Reeve, 1844).  I have
personally collected it off Jacksonville, FL and in Hawaii. The shells are
essentially identical.

Piecing together this species' range is unusually difficult because of the
inaccuracies in identifications in generally reliable contemporary works.
I can find no authentic records from this species north of Jacksonville.
Hugh Porter lists "Cymatium pileare" from NC (Porter, H. J., 1974.  The
North Carolina marine and estuarine mollusca - an atlas of occurrence.
Univ. N. C. Inst. Mar. Sci., Morehead City, vi + pp. 1-351. May.); my bet
is that BOTH C. martinianum (d'Orbigny, 1846 or 1853) and C. a. reach the
Cape Hatteras area.  The excellent and industrious members of the Gulf
Coast Shell Club had not found C. a. in NW Florida as of May 1, 1997, when
they published a checklist.  Helmer Odé [Odé, H., ???? (my copy is a xerox
without running headers] Distribution and records of the marine mollusca in
the northwest Gulf of Mexico (a continuing monograph) part II: Gastropoda.
Texas Conchologist ??(?): 10-21.] was able to distinguish C. aquatile from
C. "pileare," and noted both "forms" occurred off Texas.  I can personally
vouch for its occurence at numerous stations in southeast Florida, the
Bahamas, and the Caribbean basin.  For some reason, perhaps taxonomic
rather than zoogeographic, Eliézer Rios (Rios, E. C., 1994.  Seashells of
Brasil 2a edição. Fundação Cidade do Rio Grande, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil,
pp. 1-368 + 113 pls.) avoids mention of this taxon as a Brasilian species.

In the East Atlantic it is known from the Canaries, Ascension, St. Helena,
and SW Africa. (Talavera, F. G., 1982.  Los moluscos gasteròpodos
amfiatlànticos (estùdio paleo y biogeogràfico de las especies bentonicas
litorales). Colecciòn Monografias 10 , Secretariado de Publicaciones de la
Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Canary Is., pp. 1-351. [miscaptioned
as C. nicobaricum as in Abbott, 1974]; Vermeij, G. J. and G. Rosenberg,
1993. Giving and receiving: the tropical Atlantic as donor and recipient
region for invading species. Amer. Malac. Bull. 10(2): 181-194. Dec.).

That's all I can dig up on the Atlantic records; I think it is more
widespread than these limited data indicate.

Harry


At 10:15 AM 9/26/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Andrew Vik
>[log in to unmask]
>
>Harry:
>
>I dropped the ball on my Cymatium info. I actually had my specimens from
Hawaii
>divided into C. pileare and C. aquatile ( as well as C. nicobaricum  and
>C. gemmatum, which cannot be confused with the pileare-aquatile-martinianum
>complex). Alison Kay's book made the distinction between to two quite
clear. Now,
>I have been calling my Caribbean specimens C. pileare martinium without much
>careful thought. I was not even aware that C. aquatile was present in the
>W.Atlantic. I will have to re-examine my S.FL. specimens. Does C. aquatile
live in
>the Fl. Keys also, or just the S.Caribbean?
>
>Andrew
>
>Harry G. Lee wrote:
>
>> Dear Bob, Betty, et al.,
>>
>> Your observation is a valuable one and appears to be on the mark, but I am
>> inclined to call the three species C. nicobaricum, C. aquatile, and C.
>> martinianum.
>>
>> Harry
>
>Attachment Converted: "c:\comm\mspring\DOWNLOAD\ReCymati.htm"
>
Harry G. Lee
Suite 500
1801 Barrs St.
Jacksonville, Fl. 32204
USA   904-384-6419
<[log in to unmask]>
Visit the Jacksonville Shell Club Home Page at:
http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/wfrank/jacksonv.htm

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