Extreme south Florida is a vast ex- 

 panse of saw-grass marsh studded 

 with isolated atolls of hardwood ham- 

 mocks — small clusters of trees on land 

 rising only a few inches above the water's 

 surface. Inward from the ocean shore, 

 mangrove swamps gradually merge into 

 drier hardwood jungles, both on the 

 mainland and along the chain of islands 

 from Largo to Key West. On these dots 

 of dry land live snakes, biting insects, 

 birds and beautiful tree snails. 



These snails, of the genus Liguus, feed 

 on fungi, preferably scraped from the 

 bark of the wild tamarind or Jamaica 

 Dogwood, although they are sometimes 

 found on other smooth-barked trees. 

 Several color forms of these snails may 

 live in the same hammock, although 

 sometimes only pure colonies are found. 

 A few variations that live only on one 

 small hammock are now extinct because 

 bulldozers leveled their sole habitat 

 when clearing the land for housing de- 

 velopments. 



It has been said that Liguus collecting 

 (called "ligging" in Florida) combines 

 the "pleasures of an Easter egg hunt with 



Page 8 



the dangers and thrills of exploration in 

 tropical jungles." For Dr. and Mrs. 

 Michael Price de Boe of Coral Gables, 

 Florida, "ligging" meant the joy of being 

 close to nature, seeing alligators, flowers, 

 and butterflies, and enjoying a change 

 from everyday activities in the company 

 of friends with similar interests. Each 

 specimen held memories of a day's hike, 

 a new exploration. The de Boe's were 

 keen snail hunters, eager to find out 

 which snails lived on the next hammock. 

 Over the years, 365 "next hammocks" 

 were explored. Careful records and 

 maps were kept and each shell collected 

 was marked with the locality, date of 

 collection, and a catalogue number. The 

 name Liguus fascial us solisoccasus de Boe, 

 given to one of the snails they discovered, 

 stands as a testimonial to their explora- 

 tions and study of these mollusks. 



Through the generosity of the late 

 Dr. Jeanne S. Schwengel of Scarsdale, 

 New York, Chicago Natural History 

 Museum has just acquired the famous de 

 Boe collection. Its 12,500 specimens, 

 representing every known color varia- 

 tion of Florida Liguus and nearly every 



variety known from Cuba and Haiti as 

 well, constitute probably the finest as- 

 semblage made by private individuals. 

 The bright yellows, blues, browns, 

 greens, pinks and whites of these 2 J^ inch 

 shells are subtly combined into myriads 

 of patterns coated with a high gloss. It 

 is no wonder that they are called "gems 

 of the Everglades" by South Florida 

 residents. 



The Ijeauty of the shells and the chal- 

 lenge of the hunt explains their fascina- 

 tion for collectors, but what is the im- 

 portance of Liguus coWcclions to museums, 

 and why do these snails have such in- 

 terest for scientists? There are only four 

 or five species of Liguus, although 55 

 color forms have been named from Flor- 

 ida and possibly another 50 from Cuba 

 and Haiti. The answer lies not in their 

 numbers, but in the way they live and 

 the evidence they offer of evolutionary 

 processes. 



During the rainy season of May 

 through August the snails move about 

 on their food trees, feed, add to their 

 shell and, near the end of this period, 

 mate. About October 1st, any brief 



