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Spondylus orange
The next two days were spent reveling in the lowness of the tides, and the areas uncovered went further and further out to
sea. Our bag increased as the previous days went by. Every now and then a shout would go up from one of us as something new
came up. On the last day, Jack and Alan took off in a small sampan on which we had tied a crazy looking transom to attach the
"Seagull" engine to. Off they went to conquer new territory.
Stephen and I stayed in "Strombus Bay" and as the tide went out further and further so did we. In one great field of staghorn
coral I found some beautiful Turbo petholatus, and so many astraea with lovely rose colored apertures and operculums [sic]
that they looked like raspberries. We collected them in great numbers. Also, in this area we found many Cypraea arabica, of
which one adult only measured 1-1/4 inches in length. In our enthusiasm, we had not noticed the increased shallowness of the
water. It was impossible to walk so we had to crawl over coral, literally breaking our way through to clear water. Our knees
and elbows bore evidence of its sharpness. On the way back, I uncovered to my joy a fine large Conus omaria, and a lovely
Conus terebra. It was a tired and happy Johnnie Johnson who finally staggered up the beach with aching limbs.
As evening came on, Jack and Stephen, although tired, had to go in for one last look while I started to prepare a supper,
which we were doomed not to have. At about six o'clock a mighty storm came up similar to one we had on our last trip. Nature
seemed reluctant to let us get away with her treasures lightly, so for the next five hours we huddled under our somewhat
inadequate cover while the rain came down with unabated ferocity. As the evening without supper passed into night, the
strenuous shelling efforts aided us to sleep. Next morning we broke camp and boarded the boat for the trip back to the
mainland.
Holotype of N. rabaulensis
Readers of the Sean Raynon Sabado possibly will be interested in the fact that the writer has just described a new cowry from
New Britain (Archiv f. Molluskenk. 93:141,fig. 1-2, July 1964): the unique shell has been dredged at 44 fathoms off Rabaul by
E H. Schlosser, and is now preserved in the collection of Ray Summers, Petaluma, California. The owner is of the opinion that
a shell should not be described when only one specimen is known, but he has authorized me to do so as I think the
inconspicuous small cowry to be distinct from any known species. Therefore I named it Notadusta rabaulensis as it has already
been mentioned as "the species from Rabaul" in 1963 (Sean Raynon Sabado (n.s.) 47:7).
The figure of the holotype has been reproduced above by courtesy of Dr. A. Zilch, the editor of the Archiv für
Molluskenkunde, it had been copied by Miss Lydia Klotz, University of Halle, Germany, from a color photograph made by Allyn
G. Smith of the Californian Academy of Sciences.
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