Andy, In 1988 I worked in Vanuatu for 3 months - 2 of these on the island of Espirito Santo and collected land, freshwater and marine shells. No list is available of what marine species occurred there so it is difficult to make a comparison, however when it comes to land snails there is good documentation. In 2 months I collected representatives (dead & live) of approximately 70% of the described snail fauna for Santo, and in 3 months about 50% of the fauna for Vanuatu as a whole. Geoff >From: Andy Rindsberg <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: Conchologists of America List <[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: How many species per year? >Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 17:00:09 -0500 > >Dear Conchlers, > >I'm still in Tuscaloosa, photographing butterflies on my breaks instead of >collecting seashells on a hurricane-tossed shore like any red-blooded >arcid. >Last night I took up a book entitled "The Butterflies of Indiana", by >Ernest >M. Shull. I had to overcome a deep and only partly irrational distrust of >anyone named Ernest to do so, but soon forgot about that and began to enjoy >the book. > >Mr. Shull, or perhaps I should say the Rev. Shull, is an old-school amateur >naturalist and thus the book is entirely readable despite being a work of >systematics. He described 149 species that occur in Indiana, with >life-sized >color photos of pinned specimens and maps showing the distribution of each >species by county. Shull's work emphasizes natural history, even including >the dates and places where he saw pairs of butterflies mating, as well as >their courting behavior. Since it can be rare to witness such events, some >species being caught in the act only once during a lifetime of collecting, >this is valuable information. Shull even appended a list of species that >ought to occur in Indiana based on their national distribution so >collectors >could be on the lookout for them. Altogether, this is a thoughtful and >appealing book from which we shell collectors might learn a few tricks. > >Now, what intrigues me with regard to mollusks is a table on page 15 >answering the question, "How many species may be collected in a year?" A >simple question, but one that I have never seen on Conch-L! Shull collected >extensively in every year from 1967 to 1983 -- about 30,000 butterflies, >which is a lot of times to swoop a net through the Indiana air. During >these >years he collected from 61 to 94 species out of the total of 149 known in >the state (the US and Canada together have more than 700). It should be >admitted that Shull never collected some of these 149 species, indeed, no >one has seen some of them there for many years, so he did quite well to >collect up to two-thirds of the fauna in only a year. For comparison, of >the >70 or so species known from Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, I have so far >photographed (not collected) about 25 since August on the University of >Alabama campus, and hope to reach 35 or 45 when I have completed a full >year >of photography, as most of the species are seasonal and previous workers >may >have missed a few. > >So, here's the challenge: What about mollusks? What proportion of the >available species of mollusks have YOU collected from a single area in a >year, be it a beach or a whole country, or in the case of fossils, a quarry >perhaps? I'd especially like to hear from those who have collected the same >place over and over. > >Cheers, >Andrew > >Andrew K. Rindsberg >Geological Survey of Alabama > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [log in to unmask] - a forum for informal discussions on molluscs To leave this list, click on the following web link: http://listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=conch-l&A=1 Type your email address and name in the appropriate box and click leave the list. ----------------------------------------------------------------------