Hi Chris,

I was intrigued by the question. Referring to Living Terebridae of the
World:
"Some species mate beneath the sand, others on the surface. The
jellylike eggs are placed on grains of sand, small stones or basalt
chips."

In my humble opinion, eggs attached to a shell seems very probable. It
is something I will keep in mind while I'm out collecting. And, if I
have similar observations, I'll be sure to post it here on Conch-L.

Cheers
Bob Abela
Tamuning, Guam
http://www.guamcell.net/~babela/bobsguamshells/

-----Original Message-----
From: Conchologists of America List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Chris Brown
Sent: Friday, July 04, 2003 10:43 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Terebridae question


Is anyone familiar with breeding habits/ eggs/ egg cases of Terebras?
Here's the scenario:  Recently, we found five T. variegata in close
proximity to one another (a few feet), under the sand, on a bar at low
tide.  Two had an unusual and pretty much identical "attachment" located
at approximately the midpoint on the shell.  I don't have a picture, so
you'll have to use your imagination.  It was gelatinous in texture, a
semi-transparent gray in color, and more or less rectangular in shape.
If it were one specimen alone, I might have written it off to some sort
of parasite or hitchhiker, but two?  Additionally, sub-sand dwellers (at
least in my experience) usually don't have such attachments.  Can anyone
hazard a reasonable guess as to what this might have been?  I figured it
was probably some sort of egg case and left them where they were.

Chris Brown