Does anyone know how many species of Spondylus are in the water of Florida,
West Indies and Brazil? Spondylus spotted on a rock pile off Recife, N.
Brazil and sold to collectors as gilvus (Rve. 1856) which we agree with.
Brazilian shell dealers are calling all of these shells ictericus.  These
Recife rock pile shells have a very small area of attachment namely on the
produced unbone.  This area of attachment is considered by Lamprell and
Whitehead in the Spondylus book as an important ID factor.  This spondylus
area also interests Emilo Garcia who considers gilvus a synonym of Sp.
erinaceus (Rve., 1856) Emilo feels the description by Reeve to be to short.
Does anyone have any answers?
 
Ed Haviland