Hello Conch-l Friends,
I am just back from a six day trip, and wow!  Over a hundred messages waiting
for me, most of them from conch-l!  So many intresting things discussed, but
was especially gladto see some information about the two shells I had asked
about, my LATAXIENA fimbriata, and my Acavus haemstoma LAND SNAIL!  I didn't
know land snails got this big!  But then I know almost nothing about land
snails anyway.  All of my books are on marine shells.  And I am glad to
finally know about the Lataxiena fimbriata.  After I got the name right I
looked through all my books, found it in two of them.  In the Collector's
Guide to Seashells of the World by Jerome Eisenberg, there is a picture of
this shell, but it is shown on the page with the Coraliophillidae fmaily
(though it does say Lataxiena, not Latiaxis).  But in my brand new Australian
Marine Shells by Barry Wilson, which is a  much newer book, and hopefully up
to date,there is a picture exactly like my specimen, and in the murex section,
as Mr. Monfils said it should be.  So now it is in my murex drawer.  So thank
you very much all who offered information on these shells.  Hopefully it will
be okay if I list a few others I am having a hard time with, especially some
of my cone shells.  I will do that in a seperate message, soon.
Thanks again
Linda Mason