Mark, What you say certainly has validity. More than once the single specimen used to describe a species has later turned out to be a form, or even a wierd individual variant (a "freak", so to speak) of an existing species. On the other hand, requiring the collection of ten specimens before naming a species could take many years, perhaps even a century or more in some cases. Such current or former rarities as Conus gloriamaris, Conus cervus, Cypraea valentia, Cypraea leucodon, etc. were known from either a single specimen or very few specimens for many years before the 10th specimen was discovered. Personally I would like to see at least a second specimen emerge before a new species is described, but even that is not always the case. Paul M. Rhode Island