Dear Paul,

None of my M. bispinosa (Philippi, 1844) from Quintana Roo, Mexico is
phosphorescent.

Harry


At 10:25 AM 10/25/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Hello Conch-L'ers,
>I recently posted a request for help in identifying a shell, a picture of
>which was posted on Bret Raines' web site.  Andrew kindly identified it as
>Melongena bispinosa.  I thought you might be interested in the story of this
>shell.  A gentleman contacted the American Museum of Natural History, who
>referred him to me (probably, I suspect, as a result of a recent article I
>wrote on fluorescence in shells).  The man said he has a basket of shells in
>his bathroom, and he recently noticed that one of the shells "glowed in the
>dark" for several minutes after the room lights were turned off.  He wanted
>to know if I had ever heard of this phenomenon, or if he had made a
>"discovery".  I e-mailed him back and as diplomatically as possible asked
>how much experience he has with shells, and if he was sure the shell in
>question was real, and not a manmade copy.  He was very forthright and told
>me he has no experience with shells whatsoever, but that he thought the
>shell looked real.  Subsequently he photographed the specimen and sent me
>several images.  I also thought the shell looked real, but didn't recognize
>the species, so I made a composite of his images, and asked Bret to post it
>on his site.  So, now I know the species - but I still don't know why the
>shell glows in the dark.  Maybe it is due to some kind of alga or
>microorganism that is dried on the shell?  Or could it actually be a
>characteristic of the species?  I don't have a specimen of this species on
>hand.  Does anyone have a specimen which they can check to see if it
>exhibits phosphorescence?  Most recently, the owner of the shell has sent me
>some images which he captured by doing time exposures in the dark, totally
>by the light emitted by the shell.  Incidentally, the difference between
>phosphorescence and fluorescence, in practical terms, is that
>phosphorescence persists after the incident radiation has been removed.
>Regards,
>Paul M.
>
Harry G. Lee
Suite 500
1801 Barrs St.
Jacksonville, Fl. 32204
USA   904-384-6419
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