Micronesian Gastropods — Demond 
295 
Hawaii south to New Guinea, the Solomon 
Islands and New Caledonia. Uncommon in 
Micronesia. 
Strombus fragilis (Rdding, 1798) (syn. samar 
Dillwyn, 1817; bulbulus Sowerby, 1842). 
Characteristically 1.5 to 2 inches long. Shell 
whitish and mottled with orange or brown. 
Columella and outer lip reddish - brown. 
Whorls smooth, lacking the raised ridges of 
S. dentatus. Outer lip flared and ridged inter- 
nally but without the toothed edge of S . 
dentatus. 
Fig. 13. Strombus fragilis (Roding). Guam, Mariana 
Islands (USNM 533081). 
Apparently lives below low tide line in both 
lagoon and offshore ocean waters. The recent 
Micronesian collections include only broken 
specimens dredged from a depth of 150 to 
200 feet off the sandy floor of Bikini lagoon, 
and worn specimens from four feet of water 
at Yap and from the shore of Managaha Is- 
land, Saipan. 
GEOGRAPHIC RANGE: USNM records are 
from the Philippine, Mariana, Marshall, Ca- 
roline, Samoan, and Fiji islands only. These 
collections indicate that S. fragilis is uncom- 
mon in Micronesia and absent from Hawaii. 
Strombus gibberulus Linne, 1758. 
Kira (1955) pi. 15, fig. 7. 
Characteristically 1 to 1.5 inches long and 
porcelain white with brown markings and a 
purple or pink aperture. 
Fig. 14. Strombus gibberulus Linne. Yap, Caroline 
Islands (USNM 614208). 
Plentiful in Micronesia on sandy lagoon 
flats, which are barely exposed at low tide, 
and on sandy lagoon floors to depths of 60 
feet. Also found in sandy depressions on la- 
goon reef flats. Abbott (1950) reports that 
S. gibberulus is "fairly abundant" on the outer 
beaches of Cocos-Keeling Atoll. Abbott 
(1949) also reports the occurrence of thou- 
sands of individuals on the sand-mud flats at 
Guam and describes the habits of this species. 
GEOGRAPHIC range: USNM collections 
are from the entire east African coast and the 
Red Sea eastward through the Indian and 
Pacific oceans to the Society and Tuamotu 
islands, and from the Ryukyu and Hawaiian 
islands south to Queensland, Australia, and 
New Caledonia. Common in Micronesia. 
Strombus lentiginosus Linne, 1758. 
Hirase and Taki (1951) pi. 86, fig. 4; Kira 
(1955) pi. 16, fig. 8. 
Characteristically about three inches long 
with a silvery pink aperture. 
Ordinarily found buried in sand at depths 
of 4 to 12 feet in quiet waters. Specimens in 
the recent Micronesian collections were taken 
on the sandy lagoon shelf at Rongelap and 
Ifaluk and from a protected channel at Ifaluk. 
