Andy,

Röding's entire description: "N[erita] Usnea Die mossfarbige Nerite."  He
[only] cites Lister 605, fig. 33.  This [1687; microfiche] illustration is
pretty convincing, but there is no caption other than "33," and I know of
no text.

Who collected Lister's shell?

Of his Theodoxus reclivatus Thomas Say (1822) wrote: “I found this species
in great plenty, inhabiting St. John’s river [sic] in East Florida, from
its mouth to Fort Picolata, a distance of one hundred miles, where the
water was potable. It seemed to exist equally well where the water was as
salt [sic] as that of the ocean, and where the intermixture of that
condiment could not be detected by the taste.”  That increases the
"reported" range of this species north from St. Augustine (Tom's posting)
about 50 miles north to (very near) the mouth of the St. Johns River, which
later occurrence I've confirmed.

"Reclivatus" means leaning backwards.  I suppose it refers to the
angulation of the dark axial lines in the shell's periostracum, which often
flex at midwhorl, forming an obtuse angle pointing toward the labrum (outer
lip).


Harry


At 04:01 PM 8/12/2004, you wrote:
>Thanks, Tom.
>
>Incidentally, I got curious about the strange name "usnea" and looked it up.
>Usnea is a genus of beard-lichens; the word is Botanical Latin, from Arabic
>oshnah, "moss". It's not a name that I would have chosen for Vitta usnea,
>but maybe the color pattern reminded Roeding of moss or moss-like lichen.
>Spanish "moss", the angiosperm that hangs from trees in regions adjacent to
>the Gulf of Mexico, is Dendropogon usneoides.
>
>Andrew K. Rindsberg
>Geological Survey of Alabama

Harry G. Lee
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