i had the chance to visit Chincoteague again this past weekend....the bay water was quite warm and there was lots more seaweed than in April. The large urosalpinx were present but quite cryptic, being attached deep within clumps of oysters or buried in mud, and not out in the open as during my last visit. i saw no large Eupleura caudata, nor any Nassarius vibex or the various small bivalves from before, eg Tellina, Tagelus. A visit to Wachapreague VA earlier in the same day was more rewarding. Big shells like Busycons and Hooked mussels were again plentiful. Shell piles and debris there had good amounts of smaller shells, eg nice sized Nassarius vibex. As always, N. vibex is greatly outnumbered by the many more Ilyanassa obsoleta, from which i was able to pick quite a few clean, uneroded nicely banded and colorful individuals. Again both Anachis (colorful avara , and lafresnayi) were easy to find. The best surprise was some very nice Jersey Marginellas (Prunum roscidum), these appear to have fallen out of traps some time ago onto the ground with Nassarius trivitattus, those that were partially covered by debris or which rolled under stacked traps retained their color, while those out in the open were quite faded/worn. Another nice find- surprised they werent around on my last visit- were three massive specimens of what i think have been shown genetically to be Stramonita canaliculata. These are about 3.5 to 4 inches long. I had previously found references online that show these have been turning up in Maryland and Virginia for some time now. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------