Well, Tom.  It looks like it's just you and me on Terebra.  So, I'll just
spit out a few things.  Bill Frank is probably referring to a short paper
written on the underwater surfing abilities of Hastula salleana.  They
follow the tide up and down as they get dislodged by the surf.  It's a
pretty cool behavior, but the study was quite anecdotal.
 
The genus Hastula is well-established in the literature and is based on
very different morphologies in the foregut.  There are undoubtedly
unrecognized genera out there which will come to light when other species
are dissected.  Hastula is basically circumglobal in the tropical to
subtropical zones.  The west Atlantic fauna includes, salleana, maryleeae,
cinerea and hastata (although, I'm concerned about hastata being in the
same group as the others).
 
Harry Lee and I described a new species of terebrid from Brazil several
years ago.  Looks just like a Hastula on the outside.  The insides were
totally different.  We left it in the genus Terebra and named it
appropriately, imitatrix (Harry's idea), alluding to its similarity (by
shell) to Hastula.  It's a very pretty shell and I have seen it only from
the type series housed in the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia.
 
John Taylor of the British Museum has done a substantial amount of work on
the family in conjunction with his conoidean research, but I have not kept
up like I used to.
 
Any more terebrid buffs out there?
 
Kurt
 
 
At 12:09 PM 3/10/99 -0700, you wrote:
>Kurt,
>
>Nice try.  I actually do have one tid bit on terebra.  I have about 50
>different species.  I never really concentrated on them but I have
>always liked their delicate shape and nice color patterns.  Anyway, I
>had always assumed they were strictly crawlers under the sand, leaving
>their little trails as they went about their business.  A while back,
>however, I found they can be quite active.  A friend (Bill Frank of the
>Jacksonville Club) sent me some Terebra (Hastula) salleana.  As is often
>the case with those of us who are landlocked, I had terebra from the
>tropical Pacific but not from my own country.  As you all know, it is
>often the very common shells that are the hardest to get hold of.
>
>Well, back to the T. salleana.  In Bill's notes on the shells he stated
>they had indeed been found buried in the sand.  But he went on (it was a
>great data slip) to say they are seasonably common in the surf actually
>"surfing" with their extended, winglike foot.  Actually, I believe Bill
>called it an umbrella shaped foot.  This activity is thought to be
>linked to coming into shallow waters to mate.
>
>Does anyone know of other swimming terebra?  How about other swimming
>seashells?  We all know about pecten and cavolina, and I have always
>assumed bubble shells swim just by looking at their shape.  Are there
>others?
>
>Tom Eichhorst in New Mexico, USA
>