316 Bulletin Vanderbilt Marine Mttseum, Vol. VII 



Genus: PINCTADA Roeding 

 Pinctada margaritifera (Linne) s. s, Jameson 



f 



Plates 127 and 128 



Type : Linne's type, deposited in the Museum of the Linnean 

 Society of London, consists of a right valve of a typical East Indian 

 specimen, believed to be from the Malay Archipelago, as it is a 

 typical "Black-edged Banda" shell of trade. The other valve agrees 

 with trade samples typical of the Red Sea. The specific locality of 

 his types is unknown, Linne having stated : *'In utnusque indiae 

 oceano." 



Distribution : This species and its geographic races are very 

 widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific and have been known to 

 traders since the earliest times. The "Periplus" of the Erythraean 

 Sea (60 A. D.) , gives description of the pearl fisheries. Pliny (Nat. 

 Hist. Bk. IX, chap. 54, Lemaire's edition), Athenaeus and Aelian 

 remark upon the pearl fishers and the pearls, while in the Singha- 

 lese records the "Mahawanso" records Ceylon pearls among the 

 gifts sent by King Vijaya of Ceylon to his Indian father-in-law 

 about 540 to 550 B. C. and in 306 B. C, when King Devan- 

 ampiyatissa sent an embassy to India, pearls were included in his 

 gifts. Records of the first Royal Dutch Embassy received by the 

 Emperor of China state that pearls were among the gifts the 

 Emperor sent to the Leyden court. Fourteenth century Spanish 

 and Portuguese navigators also brought back pearls. It is mem- 

 orable that Queen Isabella of Spain sacrificed her pearls in behalf 

 of Columbus' momentous voyage, designed to seek a shorter trade 

 route to the fabled wealth of the East Indies. Sir Francis Drake is 

 reputed to have brought back pearls and pearl shells to Royal 

 Elizabeth. 



Typical Pinctada margaritifera is found on the Australian 

 coasts from about 29° S. on the west coast across the entire north- 

 ern coast and down the eastern coast to Moreton Bay and vicin- 

 ity, also on the coasts of New Guinea, New Britain, the Solomon 

 Islands, the Philippine Archipelago, where it is especially abun- 

 dant in the Sulu Sea, the Malay Archipelago, and also found in 

 China, the Ceylon, the Andaman Isles and Maldive Archipelago. 



Mr. Jameson distinguishes five geographical races in addition 

 to the typical one, namely: 



