Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2007 12:37:26 -0500
Reply-To: Conchologists List <CONCH-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sender: Conchologists List <CONCH-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: "Harry G. Lee" <shells@HGLEE.COM>
Subject: Re: Nerita in Texas
In-Reply-To: <20070109030243.BA92CFD103@mail.net1.net>
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Dear Leslie,
My interest in Nerita (true nerites) in TX had
heretofore not gotten beyond Jean Andrews (1971:
57) who cited only one, Nerita fulgurans Gmelin,
1791, which she placed from "Port Aransas south"
on the shores of the Lone Star State.
You have added: "Nerita versicolor; Four-Tooth
Nerite; 22.7 mm; 07/01/96; D. Harris
[collector/owner?]; S. Padre Isl., TX; Texas
Range: S. Padre to Mexico Border." As I look at
your linked Internet site, it appears that the
Brazoria County shell team has a laudable project
with rigorous guidelines. Do you provide
oversight now that Roe Davenport is gone? This is exciting!
Odé (1985: 103) recognized only N. fulgurans from
the "northwest Gulf of Mexico" (read "Texas" by
my analysis). His discussion may interest some on
the list: "Sometimes this species can be
collected alive on the jetties of Port Aransas
and Port Isabel.. A particularly nice lot of live
shells was collected at the Coast Guard Station
in Port Isabel .... [earlier} Although not
directly of interest to the Texas fauna, we may
mention here that the type of the genus N[erita]
peloronta Linne [sic] has been reported from
Texas, but no authentic material is known to me.
It might be of interest here to make some remarks
about the name "peloronta." The species known
popularly as the "bleeding tooth" received its
popular name because of the rather loose ways of
latinization employed by Linne [sic]. As a young
man Linne [sic] spent some time in the
Netherlands during which period he worked out his
system of plant classification. Then he became
undoubtedly also familiar with some of the shell
species Dutch travelers imported from Indonesia.
In the Java Sea off the coast of Java lies a
small island from which a species of Nerita was
imported, much prized by Dutch collectors and
called by them "poelerontjes" which is a Dutch
diminutive constructed for the Malay name Poeloe
(which means island in Malay) Oron. Linne [sic],
either by design or by error used the
latinization of this dutchified Malay for a Caribbean species!"
Recall the type locality for Nerita peloronta
cited by Linnaeus (1758: 778, sp. 639) was "in O.
Asiae ad Bandam" (Asian ocean, Banda Is., (Indonesia]).
Since I haven't been able to locate any records
of marine shells (let alone Nerita) for the
thousand miles of Mexican coastline from the Rio
Grande to Laguna de Términos (perhaps aptly
namely as it the westernmost locality for N.
versicolor, N. tessellata, and N. fulgurans),
these ranges could stand some fine-tuning.
Certainly the Brazosport Group's TX record for
the N. versicolor is a critical one.
Let's see what the Leslie and his south TX
shelling constabulary along with our Mexican
colleagues, can do to further clarify these spotty, hazy ranges.
Harry
At 09:46 PM 1/8/2007, you wrote:
>.. Just to put a little Texas data into the mix
>Leslie :)
>
>TEXAS NERITIDAE (Nerites) Record Sizes
>
>Smaragdia viridis Emerald Nerite
>07.1 mm 12/29/00 J. Nill Clark Isl. (Boca Chica), TX
>Texas Range: Aransas to Mexico Border
>
>Nerita fulgurans Antillean Nerite
>34.7 mm 01/01/97 R. Neuffer S. Padre Isl., TX
>Texas Range: Aransas to Mexico Border
>
>Nerita versicolor Four-Tooth Nerite
>22.7 mm 07/01/96 D. Harris S. Padre Isl., TX
>Texas Range: S. Padre to Mexico Border
>
>Neritina virginea Virgin Nerite
>14.3 mm 01/01/88 L. Crnkovic Laguna Madre-Corpus, TX
>Texas Range: Aransas to Mexico Border
>
>Neritina reclivata Olive Nerite
>16.4 mm 04/01/94 R. Davenport Carancahua Bay, TX
>Texas Range: Louisiana to Mexico Border
>
>http://bcfas.org/museum/SSSBC/StudyProject/STUDYPROJECT.HTML
Harry G. Lee, M. D.
4132 Ortega Forest Dr.
Jacksonville, FL 32210 USA
voice (904) 389 4049
email: shells@hglee.com
look at www.jaxshells.org
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