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Monggo shell
Area 1 is noted mainly for Cypraea tigris. However, I have collected two Conus retifer both dead, one in fair and one in
excellent condition. The area is basically a submerged coral reef with intermittent sand channels through which water, washed
up on the reef by the ocean swells, flows back to sea. On top of the coral, usually in ten to fifteen feet of water, will be
found Cypraea tigris. In the deeper coral areas along the slopes of the reef will be found the cones and other species listed
for this area:
Conus ebraeus 15 feet.
Conus flavidus 15 to 20 feet.
Conus abbreviatus 15 to 20 feet.
Cypraea leviathan 10 feet.
Cypraea mauritiana 20 to 25 feet.
Latirus nodus In sand, most depths.
Turbo intercostalis On rocks, 20 feet.
Trochus intextus On coral heads, 20 feet.
Peristernia chlorostoma Coral, all depths.
Area 2 is what divers call the drop-off. The shallow, or inshore, side of the drop off is usually a fairly flat coral plain
with intermittent live coral heads and scattered dead coral rubble. Down the rather steep slopes of the drop-off will be
found live coral heads of medium size. Also there are places in this area where the drop off is a sheer cliff with occasional
under water caves and tubes complete with stacks in the back through which a diver can shoot rapidly with the incoming surge
of an ocean swell. At the base of the cliff or slope will be found a sandy bottom with broken coral washed down from the
slope or huge chunks broken off from the cliff. This sandy bottom slopes out gradually to a second drop-off in 120 feet of
water after which the bottom slopes rather abruptly into deep water.
The species was established by Duclos in 1833 (Mag. de Zool., Mollusqu., Paris), and illustrated on page 26. Monographers of
the genus Cypraea, such as Reeve, Sowerby, Roberts, and Hidalgo, erroneously recorded the species from various Indo-Pacific
localities, with the "Philippine Islands" being the favourite locality quoted; Hidalgo even reported it from the "Sandwich
Islands". Most authors treated C. esontropia as a valid species, and the Schilders, in all their papers, restricted the
distribution of the species to Mauritius.
Doubt about the species taxonomic status and distributional range, was raised by Dr. Verdcourt in his monograph on East
African Cowries (Journ. E. Afr. Nat. Hist. Soc., 23(7):282), who suggested that C. esontropia may be no more than a variety
of C. cribraria Linnaeus. A specimen of C. cribraria, with small, pale wine-coloured spots on the labial margin, collected by
Penn at Shanzu, Kenya, was thought to be C. esontropia by Mr. W. Old, Jr. (in Verdcourt).
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monggo shell
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