Thanks for this interesting subject.

I take the opportunity of the gopher to inform many of you that I was
disconnected for technical reasons for almost three days. Everybody will get
personal answer on his e-mail, but we are a little submerged right now. The
Haliotidae have to be ready for september and this takes hundreds of hours.

On the conoidalis: when working on the Iconography it becomes clear that few
things in taxonomy in most families have been study to the bottom line. And
we do not have the time to investigate when producing the Iconography. Even
small groups can take a lifetime for several persons to get a good result
(for ex. Reid on Littorina IS good).
The commercial world recognizes the Hawaiian major as different from the
rest of the Indo-Pacific populations (personal opinon: correct) When viewing
boxes of Harpa in Taiwan (they take daily hundreds, to eat), and catches on
the Philippines (for tourist shops) it is clear that each population has its
own characteristics. To give them all a name (either form or subspecies if
this can be proved or supposed) makes sense: the international world knows
about what we speak in such a case. But this takes years of investigation,
and we can not handle such matters in a short laps of time, so for this
reason we did not use the name conoidalis in the Iconography. Form kawamurai
was used, but merely as a garbage box for all unusual Philippine specimens,
approaching more or less the major. There may be different species in this
region, but again, there are no such things as comparative studies with
depth etc...
In the meantime, the new fishing grounds of Aliguai produce an unusual type
of Harpa, close to major but with axial ribs as in davidis. Bright yellow or
orange on the ribs. (not (yet) figured in the Iconography).

For the Ficidae the situation is even worse: the F. ficus (former
subintermedia) contains different species. The best what can happen is that
a few collectors dedicate their interest and energy in collecting and
studying hundreds of each population, including the animals. As has been
done in Pleurotomaria by Anseeuw and Goto. This can result in a good
understanding of this group.

Now back to the Haliotis.

Guido


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> From: Marsha Darcy <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: Conchologists of America List <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2000 15:40:27 -0400
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Is there a Harpa authority in the house?
>
> Hi,
>
> I'm looking for information on Harpa conoidalis.  I recently bought a
> beautiful specimen of this shell (data slip says "in lobster trap at
> 100-120m off Oahu, Hawaii, 2000").  I can't find it in any of the books I
> have, and am wondering if it could be a form of Harpa ventricosa, perhaps
> endemic to Hawaii.  I'd appreciate any information anyone can give me.
> Thanks!!
>
> Marsha Darcy
> Oberlin, Ohio
> [log in to unmask]
>