Andrew,

There has always been the belief that the larger
of a "mated" pair of Cypraea is the female. I do
not have access to enough studies where sex was
actually determined and related to shell size to
answer "yea" or "nay".

There are some articles in the Archive site of
COWRYS.ORG which address the question. One was
in the Hawaiian Shell News and can be seen at
http://www.cowrys.org/NSN052CY.HTM#D

A second was in Griffiths' THE COWRY and is at
http://www.cowrys.org/archive/CWRYV1N4.HTM#P50

Another article about sexual dimorphism in cowries
with some mention of size differences is at
http://www.cowrys.org/archive/NSN365CY.HTM

I recall more but can't put my finger on just who
wrote them or when they were printed.

I hope that gets you on your way to answering your
question.


Bob Dayle
http://www.cowrys.org
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