August, 1999 
SCAMIT Newsletter 
Vol. 18, No.4 
pending contacts with Mexican authorities, and 
higher level decisions about the nature of the 
violations, and the appropriate response of the 
agency. 
In July two agents showed up to examine the 
custodial animals and deliver paperwork 
formally charging 5 counts of violation of the 
Lacey Act [CITES was recognized to be 
uninvolved] and to present a notice that a fine 
of $200 would be imposed. The two 
companions of the bucket carrier were not 
charged, only the person in possession of the 
animals being viewed as culpable by the 
authorities. It is unclear how the number of 
counts was established [there were roughly 45 
animals of 18 or so species], or how the fine 
was arrived at. We are subject to this law, and 
it’s violation may have consequences if the 
violator is detected. Whether or not it is 
possible to comply given the bureaucracies of 
many countries remains a moot point. Although 
it may be impossible to comply with some 
laws, it is certainly possible to enforce them, 
and to punish violators. 
Pictures of one of the nudibranchs mentioned 
above were then passed around. The species is 
believed to be Favorinus tsuruganus, 
originally from Southern Japan but in this 
instance collected in the state of Nayarit, on the 
northern shore of Banderas Bay. The animal is 
an egg-predator, feeding on the egg-masses of 
other opisthobranchs. One of the photographs 
showed the animal with it’s head inserted into 
the globose egg-sac of Melanochlamys 
diomedea, a cephalaspid found locally both on 
mud-flats and off-shore. 
Don Cadien informed the members of the loss 
of yet another noted taxonomist and 
systematist, Dr. Mihai Bacescu of Romania. A 
brief note of his passing was posted on the 
CrustL list server by Dr. Ileana Negoescu, a 
compatriot and co-worker of Dr. Bacescu. His 
work covered a broad spectrum of crustaceans, 
but most effort was on the taxonomy of 
cumaceans, tanaids, and mysids. He did 
publish one paper on the Californian fauna 
[describing several new mysids with Linda 
Gleye], but mostly worked on the tropical biota 
of the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific. His earliest 
work was concentrated on the Mediterranean 
and adjacent eastern waters. He will 
undoubtedly receive an obituary in either 
Crustaceana or in Journal of Crustacean 
Biology, and others in european journals such 
as Revue Roumaine de Biologie, Vie et Milieu, 
Revue Suisse de Zoology, and Travaux du 
Museum d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa” 
where many of his papers were published. 
Watch them in upcoming issues for more detail 
on his life. 
A series of abstracts of articles pertinent to the 
care and feeding of natural history collections 
was sent to the meeting by Tom Parker 
(CSDLAC). They all came from Collections 
Forum, an on-line journal of the Society for the 
Preservation of Natural History Collections 
[http://www.geo.ucalgary.ca/spnhc] . We 
mentioned one in the last NL, and Tom 
provided a series of others from recent issues 
of the journal. A number of articles on 
preservatives, labeling, and long-term storage 
considerations in this journal are pertinent to 
our activities. 
Don shared with us some new books from Sea 
Challengers, since the descriptions provided on 
their website - 
http://www.seachallengers.com 
are brief . A general guide on Indo-Pacific 
marine invertebrates by H. Matsuda [in 
Japanese, but with beautiful color photos], Part 
III of the Marine Invertebrates of Southern 
Australia, and two slim volumes on sea stars 
and other echinoderms were examined. One, 
Sea Stars of Australasia and their relatives by 
Neville Coleman has no overlap with our biota, 
but the second (1998. A Field Guide to Sea 
Stars and other Echinoderms of Galapagos by 
Cleve Hickman) does. We had some concerns 
over some of the asteroids pictured in the book, 
doubting the identity of the illustrated animals . 
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