One full sheet of United States PostalService National Marine Sanctuary commemorative stamps. Each stamp represents a different habitat and sanctuary. On the back of the sheet is listing of all the sanctuaries. The sheet retails for $10.08 and the stamps are good forever.
This is a very special program and I hope everyone will come out to hear Blair and Dawn Witherington. If you have their books, bring them to the meeting and they will sign them. There will also be books to buy that they have written.
Blair and Dawn have written one of the most valuable beach books for Florida “Florida’s Living Beaches A Guide for the Curious Beachcomber” They cover much of what you would normally encounter in a beach walk.
Come hear this dynamic couple talk about their Florida beachcombing experiences and their new book.
Carole
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Discover Our Living Beaches
Authors present an engaging photographic tour entitled “Our Beaches are Alive!”
Blair and Dawn Witherington will share illustrated stories from their newly updated book, Florida’s Living Beaches. Did you know that our wave-swept coastline offers much more than a sandy stroll amidst stunning scenery? As ever-changing ribbons of sand, these beaches foster unique life forms and accept beguiling castaways from a vast marine wilderness. Mysteries abound. What is this odd creature? Why does the beach look this way? How did this strange item get here? Blair and Dawn have sought to satisfy this beachcomber’s curiosity within four books on southeastern US beaches. Subjects covered include beach processes, plants, animals, minerals, and manmade objects. In their presentation Blair and Dawn suggest a series of “quests” to highlight one’s beachcombing journey and to show how each visit to a beach is unique—no two are exactly alike, and at any given beach, every day brings something different. The couple has a new book coming out in late November entitled, Living Beaches of the Gulf Coast.
Following their presentation, the Authors will sign copies of their books, which will be available for purchase as gifts, keepsakes, and tickets to beach adventure.
Blair and Dawn Witherington are professional naturalists. Blair is a research scientist with the Inwater Research Group and the University of Florida. He has baccalaureate and master’s degrees in biology from the University of Central Florida and a doctorate in zoology from the University of Florida. In 38 years of research, he has contributed numerous scientific articles and book chapters on sea turtle biology and sandy beaches. Dawn is a graphic design artist and scientific illustrator trained at the Art Institutes of Colorado and Ft. Lauderdale. Her art and design are prominent in natural history books, posters, exhibits, and a line of sea-themed greeting cards. Together, Blair and Dawn have merged their art, writing, photography, and design within a number of projects, including several books on beaches, seashells, and sea turtles.
Oliva bifasciata Weinkauff, 1878is our Broward county olive. It’s range starts at the Palm Beach County line and goes south off shore through the Florida Keys. Of interest is that north of Browad County it is replaced by Oliva sayana. The two do not appear to overlap.
This attractive little olive of about one an a half to two inches in length comes in three varieties. The common is wheat colored and completely covered with fine dashes and lines. The second variety is milk white and almost void of decoration. The third has two chocolate brown bands that wide in width as the shell grows. The varieties appear to be location specific.
Until recently they were abundant living in sand near our Florida reefs. The receding tide would usually reveal a few fresh dead specimens and a tropical storm more than one could collect.
Sadly beach restoration projects and pollution have made these rather scarce
Oliva bifasciata is known as the Netted Olive although that name belongs to Oliva reticularis Lamarck, 1811 a very closely related species from the Bahamas. When R. Tucker Abbot wrote his then definitive “American Seashells” he called these shells Oliva reticularis, delegating bifasciata as a synonym along with several other names. It is common to see that name used in older collections.
As this is a local species, it would be interesting to hear our members’s collecting experiences. These specimens were dredged in a sand restoration project in Hollywood Beach in the early 1990s.
From the collection of Richard Kent
Not all shells are handsome. Not all shells are graceful. Not all shells look like wha we think a shell should look like.
Homalocantha are Murex found in the tropics waters of the Pacific. They reside in coral heads. We have two varieties of Homalocantha anatomical this month, Homalocantha anatomica zamboi Burch & Burch 1960 and Homalocantha anatomica pele Pilsbry 1918. The first is from the Philippines The second is indigenous to Hawaii. Hawaiaans consider Pele to be full species Authorities disagree.
Both are extremely similar with a dominant body while and large varices that look like webbed feet at the termination of growth. The difference being that Zamboi shoot out varies at the end of each growth cycle and in Pele a knob is formed instead Pele is generally larger. This specimens small to make a a better comparison. Adult size is between 2 and 3 inches.
S second difference is that Zamoi is always white. Pele can have brilliant colors, especially on the body white. Intense reds and yellows sometimes occur. shades of lavender are common. The price for a bright red specimen spirals out of control.
The development of the body sculpture is very consistent from one specimen to the next.. Occasional specimens have additional or missing digits. The difference between the two species is clear in the final phot. Look closely!
With its elegantly proportioned curves and delicate undulating pattern of fine lines, a decentt size and high gold Amoria undulate is a most beautiful shell.
Amoriia undulate is a member of the family Volutidae. Its common name is Wavy Volute. It is carnivores eating mainly small sea snails.
There are multiple specie of Amoria that can be collected in southern Australia. where they inhabit the tidal flats where they breed. Australia is known for its extensive tides that leave huge amounts of the bottom surface exposed at low tide, even more so on the extreme low tides. Amoria undulate like many others in its family live at the far end of the tidal bank. They are not found close to the shore. After breeding season they migrate to deeper water.
To collect one has to watch the tide table and wade out a long distance in hopes to collect, alway keeping an eye on the cock so as not to get drowned by the surging incoming tie. Hence, these shells don’t show up all that often in collections.
This specimen was donated by Richard Kent who obtained it from a South Australian shell dealer/collector. It is solid and full adult. It would be graded as a gem. It would be a standout in any collection!
The July meeting will include a silent auction with 10 lots. The shells will e on view when the meeting opens. Below are photos of three of the shells to be auctioned off. Happy bidding!
Terebra areolata (Link, 1807) by diver 20m in sand, Palawam Island, Philippines
Terebra pertusa (Born, 1778) hand dredged 4-8m, Olango Island, Cebu, Philippines
Terebra nebulosa (Sowerby, 1825) hand dredged 4-8m, Olango Island, Cebu, Philippines
The Terebridae are a very large family composed of over 400 species. They are world-wide in distribution and live in tropical waters. They prefer a sandy bottom where they feed on sea worms using a harpoon like attachment to poison their prey. They are commonly called Augers, named after a drill bit.
Most augers are small growing to a maximum size of3 2-3” with many species much smaller then that. There are a dozen or so species that reach 5+6”, one of which we have here. And then there is the heavy weight Marlin Spoke, Terebra maculata in a class bu itself. This sold, massive shell reaches 10”.
The Augers a re a colorful lot with an amazing amount of variety. One needs a magnifying glass to identify the smaller species and it would probably take an expert o do so.
The pretty rose colored Terebra nebulosa came out of a dealers lot of 30 that had a few others species mixed in..
All shells were acquired by Richard Kent from a dealer based in Cebu, Phillips.
When shelling in Florida waters, keep an eye open, we have augers here, though all are bland whitish in color.
Melongena corona, the Crown Conch, inhabits the shore line of the Gulf of Mexico, especially the west coast of Florida. It has several closely related species and itself several named varieties. It is variable in size, shape, intensity of color an of particular interest the number and size of the should spines, its Crown of Thorns. Typical specimens reach an adult size of three inches, this one is about four and the rare well fed specimen may reach five inches.
The Crown Conch is cream in color encircled by light to dark brown bands. It has a wide mouth, a claw shaped operculum, and its shoulder is adorned with short atubby spines forming the crown. It is a predator, particularly fond of oysters but will eat any bivalve it comes across. Despite its name, it is not a conch.
This large distinctive specimen, with its outstanding crown, was donated by Robert Marchiselli, a Tampa Bay area shell dealer.
Barycypraea teulerei (Cazenavette, 1846)
When Burgess published his then definitive book on cypraea I’m 1970 he wrote that Cypraea tuelerei was one of the “great rarities” and that specimens were only know from museums. And then came Donald Bosch and family doing research on the Gulf of Oman who stumbled on not one but hundreds of specimens. Tuelerei has one of the most restricted distribution of all cowries, found only off of a few small islands in the Gulf of Oman. With a habitat of shall water along the shore it was easy to collect and was eventually collected to near extinction. Somewhere along the line the Sultanate banned all marine collection. Today occasional fresh specimens still reach the market. Prices fave from a low of $20 to $60 and even higher asking prices.
Cypraea tuelerei is distinctive and can no be mistaken for any other. It is solid and heavy for its size. Rather than smooth curves found in cowries, it has somewhat angular bends to define the shape. The tech are very weak. It is light beige in color with two distinctive blotched on the dorsum that meet at the top, superheated by a narrow line caused the the mantle. size ranges from 30-60mm with most specimens right in the middle. The blotches are variable in size and color which makes for an interesting series. Its nearest relative is Cypraes fultonti which is indeed a great deep water rarity.
Are Conus generals and Cpnus maldivus two separate species or are they both varieties of the dame?
They are nearly identical yet obviously different. They have different ranges that do not appear to overlap. Generalis is Pacific cone. Maldivus is an Indian ocean.
Both grow0 to about the same size and have nearly identical patterns. Their shape is classic “ice cream cone” and identical.
Both are whiteish encircled by vertical flame like streaks of dark brown to black color. Both have two broad bans, one above, one below the middy. Both are subject to spire erosion,
The difference are: Generalis is glossy except in the largest specimens. Maldivus is not Gneralis has a glass surface. Madvus is porous.
Generalis is the more collorful of the two. The bands may be orange or brown or even approaching black. Maldivus has uniform chocolate brown bans.
There are interesting varieties as the patters are variable. Phillipine rarely have the bands change from grand to dark brown halfway through their growth resulting in specimens with brown bands on one side and orange on the other.
There is a Thailand variation that is suffused with orange. It is a stunning shell that does not attain the large size.
There is a dwarf validity from the Sulu Sea.
There is also a glossy white variety from the Indian Ocean that defies description, As they are collected from fishing boats the exact location. In all my years of collecting I have only obtained one such shell.
All three raffle specimens are as nice as they come. The generals in the middle is stunning. It is a very hard to find largely white color pattern that appears in one of a hundred.
Donated by Richard Kent from his personal collection
Broward Shell Club 
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