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Puka shell jewelry
The Mozambique area of the South-East African coast, roughly between 14° and 15° 20' South, is one of the best shelling
grounds in the Indian Province. If the recent check lists of this area, compared with those of some old-famous shell
paradises like Mauritius, do not appear overwhelmingly exciting, this is due to the fact that the area was never thoroughly
surveyed. But the present incomplete lists show a great number of rare end uncommon species, such as the long-lost Cymatium
ranzanii, the little-known Discors aeolica, the beautiful Conus bullatus, Conus pulchellus and nimbosus, Cypraea marginalis.
Mitra regina, Murex elongatus, and a host of others which grow to outstanding seize and beauty here, where five big end
several smaller bays spread 500 kilometers of rich shelling beach of varying character at the collector's feet.
...
The oldest inspected shell dumps contain a very small number of species, generally not more than two or three shallow water
bivalves like Anadara and Modiolus, with some Nerita or Patella now and then. But steadily, as the centuries pass, the number
of species in the shell dumps grows. More and more shells from deeper water are found; first more clams and cockles, oysters
and Pecten, then such Gastropods as Murex ramosus, Cypraea tigris and lots of medium-seized Strombus like gibberulus, decorus
and aurisdianae, until the present day number of 120 Gastropods and 70 Pelecypods is reached.
And now let us have a look at some of this year's or last year's shell dumps: Behold, there is the spire of a big Conus
figulinus among the rubble; there a Conus vexillum, and tulipa, smashed to bits. There are the charred remains of a Lambis
elongata, crushed Cypraea onyx adusta, fragments of Murex rota and the broken valves of a big, orange Spondylus. Having seen
the contents of the ancient shell dumps, would you conclude now that Lambis elongata or Conus tulipa are more frequent today
than they were five hundred years ago? Certainly not. Because these shell dumps don't represent a cross section through the
molluscan fauna of their respective time; they merely tell of the growing knowledge of a people who, strange to the sea and
its creatures, came to settle in this coastal region during the course of the great African tribal wanderings. They tell of
the individual preference and taste of the people who gathered these shells, and they tell of the growing population and,
consequently, growing scarcity of shells in the littoral zone.
One of the biggest thrills in shell collecting is finding a new species to add to your collection, especially if it is a
beautiful one.
So it was, the day I found my first live Cypraea gaskoini.
There were five of us in the shelling group that weekend: Joe Kern, Speedy Lopez, Jack Lind, Frankie Gomez and I. Being newly
arrived in Maui, Frankie, our captain guide and diving buddy, was going to show me a new collecting area for Cypraea.
Arriving at the boat launching-site we found that the weather was not exactly ideal. A strong trade wind had sprung up which
was churning the water, thus cutting down underwater visibility to about 15 feet. Frankie assured us that this was normal for
the area and would not interfere with the diving. With some misgivings I helped load the SCUBA equipment aboard and we
launched the boat.
With the motor on full throttle and the wind at our stern we soon reached the Cypraea grounds. I was still skeptical about
the dive. Here we were in a heavily loaded boat with a gale blowing and the water the consistency of weak tea. Worst of all,
I was cold. At any rate on the bottom it could be no worse than on top. With this thought in mind, I gathered my shelling
gear together and started to drop over the side. At this point Frankie called out to me that I would not need my coral
breaking-bar which normally is part of my shelling equipment. This struck me as odd, but I dropped the bar back in the boat
figuring that Frankie must have meant that the coral was loose on the bottom and could be turned over by hand.
How wrong I was! The bottom was all sand with an occasional underwater coral island cropping up out of the sand. "Oh, well,"
thought I, "there are other shells than Cypraea to look for." So I turned to work the sand for shell trails.
Island of Philippines:
Today we collected in a relatively new area. Due to the scarcity of white sand on the Island of Philippines, finding this
new, sandy area, proved a boon.
Our hosts for the shelling trip were Mr. Richard Middleton and Mrs. Frances Moore. The area we collected in was the recently
opened "Vacation Land House Lots" in Kapoho. Here the shore is composed of pools of ocean water in a former lava flow. Access
to the beach is by foot path which takes but a few minutes walking. The site is a series of sheltered pools fringed by a
barrier of wave-tossed rocks that create a protective wall on the sea side. Tidal channels provide an abundance of flowing
water and a supply of marine food.
A short survey of the area before we enter the water. Today the tide was a low - 1.9 at 1300 with most of the coral heads
exposed. The average depth was five feet.
We swam and searched leisurely over the entire sandy bottom. Coral-heads provided a few Turbo. The seaweed covered flats
provided some Strombus maculatus, Aplustrium amplustre (old name Hydatina amplustra) and Hydatina physis.
With the preliminary search over, I concentrated my attention on the sandy bottom. Fanning the sand, I uncovered a few
Terebra affinis. Encouraged by their appearance, I fanned and searched further. The final results were ten species of
Terebra: T. affinis, T. guttata, T. maculata, T. crenulata, T. felina, T. langfordi, T. undulata, T. penicillata, T.
flavofaciata, T. peasii, and T. flavescens.
What a day.
Mr. Clifton Weaver asked that I submit a note on Cypraea (Talostolida) latior Melvill. This species is, at present, known to
occur only from Midway Island to French Frigate Shoal (Schilder, 1958) in the western Philippines Chain. It has not been
recorded from any of the eight main Philippines Islands.
The shell usually called latior by Philippines collectors is a widely-margined form of Cypraea teres Gmelin. Several other
species of Cypraea - notably Cypraea caurica L. and C. chinensis Gmelin - also occur in relatively "broad" and "narrow"
forms, as does C. teres.
The taxon, Cypraea latior, was proposed by Melvill in 1888, for "a pyriform shell, broader and more stunted than typical
teres:, with brighter coloration and very distinct dorso-lateral spots." The figure to which Melvill referred (Reeve, 1845,
fig. 66a), has been variously identified, but appears to me to represent a specimen of the present species. Melvill's
holotype is in the Cardiff Museum, while the specimen figured by Reeve, is apparently in British Museum, (fide, Schilder,
1958).
A specimen of C. latior Melvill (see figs. 1, 2 and 3) in the American Museum of Natural History, No. 92002 was found on
Midway Island by W. E. Koons Jr. in 1941. It is a dead shell, but is readily identifiable. It measures 44 mm. x 25 mm. There
are 22 teeth on the outer lip and 20 teeth are present on the columellar side. The specimen was sent to Dr. Schilder who
verified the identification and stated (pers. communication) that it was "an oblong specimen of C. latior; all characters
agree, and the number of teeth excludes teres."
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