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Conus tribblei Walls, 1977
10m deep in coral reef sand pocket
Off Olango Island, Cebu, Philippines
Collected in 2009

Our Shell of the Month, Conus tribblei Walls, 1977 is in memory of Leonard Nimoy – Spock – of the TV series Star Trek. The shell was named by Walls after his pet cat who was in turn named after the “The Trouble with Tribbles” which aired in 1967 and is considered one of the all time best episodes of Star Trek.

Conus tribllei is not a rare shell so it is surprising that it was not named until 1977. One guess is that it was confused with Conus bayani Jousseaume, 1872, Conus recluzianus Bernardi, 1853 and several other similar cones and slipped the attention of the scientists. 

The shell is obconical and elongate, rather elegant is shape. It is white with a pattern of brownish blotches arranged in irregular axial groups. There are typically spiral rows of granules on the bottom third or sometimes more with a the remainder of the shell being smooth. The surface is waxy and glossy.

It is reported that specimens grow to 70mm to 100mm and larger but they don’t seem to grow that large anymore. The only specimen listed on eBay at this moment is a meager 47mm. Specimens of Conus tribblei are difficult to acquire. The few specimens that reach the market come from the Philippines or Taiwan. Our specimen is a choice one, about as near to gem in grade as a cone can be and has a natural lip. Donated by Richard Kent.

Calocochlia festiva Donovan 1825
Mountains, Cagayon Province,
Northern Luzon Island, Philippines  44mm 1 3/4”

Calocochlia is a genus of large air-breathing land snails, pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Bradybaenidae. Tthere are over fifty species of Calocochlia, the vast majority of which the collector will never encounter. A few are particularly large and colorful, notably Calocochlia festiva Donovan 1825, which comes in two color varieties, rose or yellow. C. festiva has only been recorded from Cayagan Province, northern Luzon Island, Philippines and no other information seems to be published. This months specimen is donated by Richard Kent and was purchased from Richard Goldman at the 2015 Broward Shell Club Shell Show.

Cypraea (Erosaria) beckii Gaskoin 1836, living inside base of black corals at 50-60m, off Masbate Island, Central Philippines, January 2014.

Cypraea beckii is a beautiful minute cowry growing only to 10-14mm in size. It is moderately rare and lives in deep water at the base of black coral. Until recently it was very difficult to obtain, alive or dead, however modern collection methods have made specimens more readily available. Although its range is widespread across the Pacific, virtually all specimens come from the Philippines.
Cyrpaea beckii is fawn in color with a whitish base, its dorsum spotted randomly with white dots, about one third which are ocellated in black. The extremities are rostrate and the teeth are stained deep brown.
Cyprare Beckii is named after Dr. H Beck, a Danish naturalist, 1799-1863.
The winner of the shell of the month raffle will receive not one but two specimens, both of gem quality, with retail value of $15-$20 each. Please note that due to the small size, this is a representative photo and not of the specimens in the raffle. Donated from the collection of Richard Kent.

Epitonium scalarae Linnaeus, 1758
Live collected by local fishermen
tangle net 70-100m
Manila Bay, Philippines
January 2014

Epitonium varicosa Lamarck, 1822
Live collected by local fishermen
on reef at 15m
of Masbate Island, Central Philippines
January 2014
For November we have a very special pair of shells, two cousins –  one is very famous and the other quite obscure and seldom seen.  Epitonium scalare, Linne 1758 is the Precious Wentletrap,  a shell of incredible beauty that hundreds of years ago was so precious it graced the cabinets of emperors and queens. It’s extreme rarity led the Chinese to make fabulous fakes from rice paste. The name Wentletrap comes from a Dutch word meaning spiral staircase and it is indeed an accurate description. Epitonium scalare’s whorls do not touch each other while its extended ribs form the the staircase. It has a porcelain surface.

Epitonium varicosa Lamarck, 1822 was a rare shell until modern collecting methods made it more available, however we’re guessing even advanced collectors have never seen a specimen!  It has an amazing surface pattern and texture that photographs do not do justice to.
Wentletraps are predatory foragers and primarily feed on anemones. Most members of the family are quite small. Both specimens are from the Philippines and are of gem quality, live collected with the operculums preserved. Both are 55mm in length and about as large as any freshly collected shells that are likely to found on the market today.
Donated by Richard Kent

The following is reprinted from University of Chicago and is attributed to Penelope. It is fascinating reading.

The first published figure of Epitonium scalare (Precious Wentletrap) appeared in Rumphius’ D’Amboinsche Rariteitkamer (“Ambonese Curiosity Cabinet”) and was added posthumously by the editor, “perhaps because his Honor did not encounter them, or perhaps because they do not occur in those regions.” He comments that 500 guilders had been refused for a specimen, three of which were then known to exist. One was owned by Cosimo de Medici (to whom Rumphius had been obliged to sell his collection some twenty years earlier) and another by Johan de la Faille, a wealthy burgher from Delft and its chief magistrate. There also was a shell said to be somewhere in England. Half a century later, Linnaeus still considered the Precious Wentletrap to be rare (Systema Naturae, 10th ed. p.713, where it is called Turbinis scalaris). Even by the nineteenth century, when the shell had become more common, it still was celebrated for its beauty. One can understand why. The elegant whorls of the wentletrap do not touch as they coil from spire to aperture but are held in place by a flaring set of ribs (costae). These ribs, which are the margins of its former aperture, mark the growth of the shell and enclose it much like the treads of a spiral staircase. It is from this appearance that its popular and scientific names derive: wentletrap from the Middle Dutch wendeltrappe for a winding or spiral staircase, and scalare from the Latin scalae for a ladder or flight of stairs.

Lamarck had called the shell Scalaria pretiosa (from the Latin pretiosus, precious or valuable) because of the high price it fetched, as indeed it did. About 1750, the Emperor Francis I, husband of Maria Theresa, had paid 4000 guilders for a specimen. Three years later, four shells sold in England for more than £75. When the collection of the French ambassador to The Hague was auctioned in 1757, an E. scalare sold for 1611 livres (for comparison, Diderot was paid 3500 livres to edit his Encyclopédie that year). Ten years later, a two-inch specimen sold for 900 livres. The Queen of Sweden, the patron of Linnaeus (who utilized her collection in describing many of the shells in his Systema), owned a wentletrap, as did Catherine the Great (who later purchased Diderot’s library and employed him to care for it) and the Duchess of Portland. Prior to about 1800, the Dutch controlled access to the shell’s habitat. Eventually, specimens began to be imported from China, including cleverly fashioned fakes made of rice paste. Ironically, these fragile counterfeits, of which only a very few are thought to survive, are more rare than the beautiful porcelain-like shells they imitated.

Wentletraps feed primarily on sea anemones, from which they draw nourishment through their proboscis. It has been suggested that the purple dye which is released when the mollusk dies is used as an anesthetizing agent in feeding. But this assumption does not seem to be warranted.

Lyncina ventriculus Lamarck, 1810
On coral reef at night, 15-20 meters
Rasa Island, Palawan, Philippines, 2012

Lyncina ventriculus Lamarck, 1810, is a very heavy massive shell, easily identified by its four dorsal bands that are almost obscured be a thick callous that reaches to the top of the shell. Although Lyncina ventriculus is placed in a large group of cowries, it stands alone with no close relative. When the scientists subdivided Lyncina, they isolated Lyncina ventriculus by itself. Lyncina schilderorum and Lyncina carneola are similar but quite different.
Although not rare, Lyncina ventriculus is difficult to obtain. Whereas most cypraea are collected by the dozens, ventriculus seems to be found one at a time. It’s distribution supposedly ranges from the Philippines thru Polynesia, however only occasional specimens from Tahiti and the Visayas in the Philippines reach the market. Polynesian specimens are much smaller in size than their Philippine relatives.
Our specimen is a giant, almost 60mm in length. It has glossed over growth stress lines on the dorsum which is typical for ventriculus; true gems are a rarity. Otherwise it is a beautiful specimen. Ventriculus fades rapidly after collection. Fresh specimens are vibrant with the upper reaches of the callus black but this rapidly fades to grey. Even storage in darkness will not prevent the fading.
Donated by Richard Kent