Micronesian Gastropods — Demond 
301 
Characteristically 2.5 to 3 inches long with 
reddish-brown teeth, a calloused spire, and 
numerous dark brown longitudinal hiero- 
glyphic streaks over its dorsum. 
C. arabica is ordinarily collected among 
rocks in shallow water on both seaward and 
lagoon reef flats. The recent Micronesian col- 
lections include two specimens that were 
taken alive, both from seaward reef flats at 
Ifaluk; one on the outer reef flat just shore- 
ward of the reef edge, the other in a tide pool 
on the inner reef flat. Hiatt reports C. arabica 
to be the most common Cypraea on the shore- 
ward portion of the lagoon reef flat at Ine 
Village, Arno. 
geographic range: USNM collections are 
from East Africa and the coast of India east- 
ward through the Indian and Pacific oceans 
to the Society Islands, and from the Ryukyu 
and Line islands south to northern New South 
Wales, Australia, and New Caledonia. Re- 
ported from southern Japan but not from 
Hawaii. Common in Micronesia. 
Cypraea (Mauritia) depressa Gray, 1824. 
Characteristically 1.5 to 2 inches long. Like 
C. maculifera , this species has brown dorsal 
reticulations and brown teeth, but it lacks a 
brown splotch on its ventral columellar 
surface. 
C. depressa apparently lives under rocks on 
windward and leeward ocean reef flats, com- 
monly just shoreward of the reef edge. Al- 
though a common species in Micronesia, it 
is seldom collected alive. 
GEOGRAPHIC range: USNM records are 
from Cocos-Keeling Atoll in the Indian 
Ocean, and from the Palau, Mariana, Carol- 
ine, Marshall, Gilbert, Phoenix, Line, Sa- 
moan, Cook, Society, and Tuamotu islands. 
Reported from the Ryukyu Islands, but not 
from Hawaii. C . depressa also ranges far into 
the eastern Pacific, occurring at Clipperton 
Island (Hertlein and Emerson, 1953) and at 
Cocos and the Galapagos islands (Ingram, 
1951), but it is not found on the west coast 
of the Americas. 
Fig. 16. Cypraea ( Mauritia ) depressa Gray. Onotoa 
Atoll, Gilbert Islands (USNM 607761). 
Cypraea (Mauritia) maculifera (Schilder, 1932) 
(syn. reticulata Martyn, 1786, nonbinom.). 
Tinker (1952) p. 140, 3 figs, on p. 141 [as 
C. reticulata Martyn]; Morris (1952) p. 
179, col. pi. 5, fig. 15 [as C. reticulata 
Martyn]. 
Characteristically 2 to 2.5 inches long with 
brown teeth and brown dorsal reticulations. 
Closely resembles C. depressa but may be dis- 
tinguished from that species by the dark 
brown splotch on its ventral columellar 
surface. 
Ordinarily collected under rocks and loose 
coral below low tide line on windward ocean 
reef flats, commonly just shoreward of the 
reef edge. One specimen in the collections 
studied was taken from a small reef at a depth 
