Jose,

Thank you! You arrive on this topic like the genie in the bottle! I knew
where that SEM photo was! How could I forget my first encounter with
you! But just a month ago I gave away what I THOUGHT was a spare copy of
that issue.  Afterward I realized it was my only copy! Drat, I thought,
must get another one. BUT when I began thinking about it last night and
kicking myself a bit more, I remembered a boxed set I had put away a
long time ago. I just a few minutes ago checked that box, stored in a
pile downstairs in the dust and spiderwebs, and sure enough, I have a
copy!

Cypraea fans, Jose's illustration of which he speaks is just as Paul
Monfils describes it...the first picture is a lovely little larval
shell, about 1.25mm long; partly visible in this photo is the complex
*sinusigerous* or (sinuously double curved) outer lip typical of
mollusks that have a free-swimming stage...the curves accomodate the
little winglike velar lobes the larva uses to swim.  (I'm paraphrasing
from Jose's article in the Dec. 1989 issue of American Conchologist.)
The second picture is a very young juvenile shell, about 3mm long,
showing the cancellate protoconch, which has become conical and stopped
producing cancellate sculpture, lost the sinusigerous curve to the outer
lip and has developed an aperture that looks a lot like that of a
Cymbium (volute). The neat thing about the second picture is that the
penultimate whorl shows a side view of the shape of the former
sinusigerous lip, just where the larval shell starts growing into a
juvenile shell. I hope that makes sense. Probably not.

Yes, Jose, I'd love to have the original of that pair of shells. Perhaps
we can post the entire article on Conch-Net in the section of articles
from American Conchologist? It was a really fascinating piece on a topic
dear to Jose's heart, "Tales from Oceanic Islands: The Biogeography of
Insular Marine Gastropods from off Brazil" in American Conchologist
17(4): 7-9.

Lynn Scheu with cobwebs in her hair!
Louisville KY
[log in to unmask]



> Dear Lynn,
>
> Happy New Year! Check American Conchologist, December 1989, page 8, for a
> beautiful picture of the larval  and juvenile shells of Cypraea cinerea (I
> can send you a scan of the original SEM polaroid in case you to post it
> online). Most cowries have larval shells that are variations around that
> pattern.
>
> Best,
>
> Jose
> __________________________________________________________________________
> José H. Leal, Ph.D.
> Director, The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum
> Editor-in-chief, THE NAUTILUS
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.uwp.edu/academic/biology/bmsm/bm_shell.htm
> 3075 Sanibel-Captiva Road
> Sanibel, FL 33957 USA
> (941) 395-2233; fax (941) 395-6706