In 09.18 14/03/2002 +0000, hai scritto:
>There are some fantastic melanistic shells such as Cyp. tigris and
>Cymbiola vespertillio (and Cymatium piliare!) coming out of Thailand
>these days - i found a good one at
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1082912352 .   The
>people who sell them either do not know or seem reluctant to disclose
>the locality of these specimens.  I have 2 questions:
>
>1) How long have these been coming out of Thailand?  I heard of a few
>about 2 years ago, but do not recall any highly melanistic shells from
>this country much before that.  Could it be due to a pollution source
>that puts large amounts of nickel & iron in the water?
>
>2) where is this locality?  Is there only one, or are there several?
>
>From the great non-nuclear-but-still-wet North,
>Ross M.

Hi Ross,
I stayed in Thailand several times, but I have never seen these shells.
But at the Paris shell show there was a man of Israel who had pantherina
from Acaba gulf rusty close to black.
From the ebay picture it's difficult to understand if the tigris is very rusty
or black.
In Thaialand, andaman sea side there aren't many wrecks, only one sunken
some years ago, I don't know if on the other side, South China sea it's
different.
I know however that now many thailand fisherman go to trawl near Timor Island,
probabily the black tigris could come from there..
Hope this helps


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