ferreter wrote:
>
> Sir Ross you wrote;
> Few questions about shells get asked more frquently than the old "Since
> cowries are covered by mantles most of the time, why do they display
> such a range of color and pattern variation: what purpose(s)  does this
> serve??" chestnut.  Yet, i have yet to see a convincing   answer.  Any
> takers?   For one thing, are cowries really that secretive?  Do they
> expose themselves perhaps a little more often than popularly imagined?
>
> I once read in a back issue of HSN that cypraea cribraria has a stiking
> orange dorsum & white spots and a drab mantle.
> The second a predator attacks the cowrie withdraws the drab mantle
> revealing the bright pattern, this is supposed to scare the predator.
>
> mark
>
> "you will never see two hungry cannibals"
We kept Cypraea spadicea in our aquariums in California.  They do not
always keep their mantle up. We always said if their mantle is up they
are "happy".  However, any motion in the water at all and they would
draw in their mantle.  So I think only when a cowrie is under a ledge
and very protected does it have its mantle up.
Bobbi