4 replies to this topic

[Luko]

Hi to all mollusc afficionados,
could you pls help me identify this cowrie spotted on Seraya - Bali.
Was strolling quite fast on a mucky environnement, 6m deep, more than 5cm long.
I used to be a shell collector in my South Pacific youth (boooo! ) but couldn't recognize this one.

Assessing the mantle color, I thought about Cypraea Cribaria, then i tried to get the mantle slightly uncovering the shell but didn't recognize anything, certainly not the distinctive white cribbling of the cribaria, it was a more indefinite pattern shell.

Any ideas?
Thanks

[Leslie]

Have you looked at www.poppe-images.com? They're the best image resource for IP molluscs.

My two top choices are both species of the cypraeid genus Talostolida:
Talostolida pellucens - http://www.poppe-ima...&photoid=974676
Talostolida teres - http://www.poppe-ima...ostolida teres

I'll send it to our mollusc collecton manager who is a cowry researcher & see what he has to say.

[Luko]

Thanks Leslie,

i didn't know about Poppe-images, thanks for the link.
Indeed both of them look good from the shell color and pattern, I first wrote it looked like a Errones shell but was afraid to be terribly wrong.

[Leslie]

I just heard back from Lindsey Groves, our cowry-loving CM. Blasicrura teres pelluscens (Melvill, 1888). Apparently there's a lot of disagreement among specialists about correct names. He prefers the genus name Blasicrura rather than Tolostolida and considers pelluscens to be a subspecies of teres but agrees that's what it probably is.

[Luko]

Many thanks!