Cypraea (Eclogavena) dayritiana - Dayrit's Cowry

摘要

Lynn Murphy and I have been dive partners for a longperiod of time, many years, in fact. Our normal trips are to localesthat provide access to a large number of varieties of shells or toone particularly rare shell or shells. Lynn enjoys collecting; Ispecialize in photographing living shells. Our last trip, to thenorthern portion of Palawan, Philippines, was no exception. Wewere both looking for a specific volute from that area – Cymbiola(Aulica) palawanica (Sowerby, 1825) – he to collect, me tophotograph. While we did not find a living C. palawanica, we diddiscover multiple colonies of a small cowrie we later determinedwas Cypraea dayritiana, or Dayrit's cowrie. Accompanying thisarticle are what I believe to be the first photographs of the livinganimal known as Dayrit's cowrie.