>A little off topic maybe, but this reminds me of the little box of
>Philippino micros ("washed from coral and Spondylus, punta Engano,
>PI") that I got from a dealer...there were nearly 300 species in a
>case the size of a cigarette pack. I still have not IDed 90% of
>them. Makes me wonder how many species in total might be living in
>that area!!!

Tropical near-reef environments should be the most productive of all.
I bet that a good proportion of the less-common spp in that handful
are undescribed, as are my canyon micros (which contained also genera
not previously recognized from NZ eg ?Electroma, Acirsa,
"Narvaliscala" & Iphinopsis).

Wherever micros occur in large diversity, there is open slather for
descriptions.
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
Fossil preparator
<[log in to unmask]>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut

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