Favoritos de nature-ken

A robust colony of these Thaids showed up in Toyon Bay on Catalina Island in 2000. They were mostly mature specimens but did not reproduce.

My conjecture is that these settled in as a result of an El Niño period and were not able to survive beyond one season in such relatively cool waters.

the culprit of the mystery egg sacs!!??? it was in the sea grass burrowed next to several egg masses!!
@jeffgoddard @alanarama3

last photo is not the exact eggs it was next to, just one of many seen that day, but the same type of egg mass

A major discovery for me; with no reports of live specimens since 2007 - I was able to locate a population living at 1680 masl. The species appears to be fossorial, therefore extremely hard to spot. Unfortunately the location is a small relict of privately-owned cloud forest, surrounded by cattle fields.

Dia 82, un individuo.

Day 82, one individual.

Relacionado con // Related to:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2667158
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2667199
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2667420

This is the holotype of Chimaeria incomparabilis Briano, 1993 (now Sphaerocypraea incomparabilis), considered to be one of the rarest of all seashells.

The original description was published in: Briano, B., 1993. Description of a new genus and a new species of Cypraeidae from Somalia. World Shells 5: 14-17.

Its provenance remains a mystery, but it is said to be from somewhere off Somalia.

The holotype is deposited in the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France, MNHN-IM-2000-3556.

I'm fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit and do some research at the type collection at several large museums, and to have seen in person four of the only six known specimens of this beautiful shell.

When this shell was discovered it puzzled malacologists. It resembles a true cowrie, family Cypraeidae, but it was later discovered to look similar to a fossil, Sphaerocypraea, in the family Ovulidae.

See more taxonomic information at the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) at:
http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=575782

Based on a suggestion by jakob, I changed the observation to the original data when the specimen was collected, 1963 (I don't have the photo of the specimen label handy, so I don't know the month and day). However, by posting the date of observation it sounds like I observed it a little before I was born :-). I guess iNat is not meant to document museum specimens, since it complicates things quite a bit. Maybe there needs to be a similar website for natural history museum specimens, named iNat Museum! I saw and photographed this shell in person on 2008-11-17.

I enjoyed spending 15 minutes or so with this foraging White-lined Sphinx Moth in my yard a while ago. Many folks mistake these sphinx moths for hummingbirds.

Dripping Springs,
Hays Co., Texas
13 April 2018