Dear Paul,
 
I come from Hong Kong. Have read your message about the distribution of S.
pipus. You say S. pipus is absent from Taiwan. However, in the book "Marine
species and their distributions in China's seas" published by China Ocean
Press, Beijing in 1994, S. pipus can be found in Taiwan and P'enh-hu
Islands (a group of small islands in Taiwan Strait). Is this information
useful to you?
 
Regards
 
Cheung siu-gin
 
 
At 11:08 PM 3/3/98 -0500, you wrote:
>I try to find out on which places the Strombus pipus lives. My books says,
>by example, not in India/Sri Lanka. Is that true? And can anybody tell me
>why there is such a big part of the ocean without pipus?
>
>Hi Alex,
>
>Strombus pipus is a neat species - the dark aperture is so unusual - and it
>does have a rather odd geographic range.  It is found in east Africa,
northern
>Australia, Polynesia, and the Philippines, but as I understand it (subject to
>correction by others who really know) not in the Red Sea area, India, Sri
>Lanka, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, Hawaii, or most of the Pacific Island
>groups (Marianas, Solomons, Gilberts, etc.).  Why such a spotty distribution?
>Beats me - maybe somebody else has a suggestion.
>
>Paul Monfils
>