EW YORK SHELL CLUB NOTES No. 135 October 1977 __ Page 7 
happened. Margarita (now called Margarites) is a genus of small to 
‘tiny trochid shells confined to frigid and cold waters. The most 
common Margarites near New York is M. helicina Fabricius, found in 
Maine and northward in shallow water. I found large numbers under 
rocks at the base of the pierced rock at Percé, Gaspé, Canada. Now, 
if the disappearance of the southern Littorina irrorata is tied in 
with, as Bequaert (JOHNSONIA 7, p. 7, 1943) suggests, by a chilling 
of our waters, how come that a cold water dweller like Margarites 
also has disappeared? 
Since DeKay's collection pre- 
sumably went to the State Mu- 
Margarita ornata 
seum in Albany, I wrote to Dr. — 
Pl. 6, Fig. 104 

Katherine V. W. Palmer -- who 
had worked with the zoological in DeKay, 1843. 
collection there -- about this (enlarged) 
matter, but she answered that 
she waS never able to find any of DeKay's shells. However, she was 
not sure that somewhere or other in some neglected closet these 
shells may not be hidden away. 
DeKay also described Nucula pourci a funny species that nobody has 
ever since been able to identity. But this description he based, 
as he said (ib. p. 180) on a single specimen from Long Island Sound, 
so it did not arouse my curiosity. But a species of which he found 
"many specimens" is something else again. We breathlessly await a 
solution to the mystery. 
WHAT SNAIL WAS THAT? 
Chris Hudson, whose marriage had teetered because of the 200 snails 
he kept in the bathtub, is in the news again. The item follows: 
'Largest'Land Snail in Captivity is Dead 
HOVE, England, June 18 (AP)--What was reputed to be the largest 
land snail in captivity died today. 
A snail collector, Chris Hudson, said the 184-inch-long mollusk 
had a broken shell when it was found in Sierre Leone, West Af- 
rica, several months ago, and finally succumbed to dehydration. 
"It is a tragedy," said Mr. Hudson, 22 years old. "Despite all 
the treatments it received it has not been able to survive. It 
was a beautiful snail and it was to make a television program 
today." 
The large land snails of Africa all belong to the’ genus Achatina, 
but the dimensions given here obviously do not refer to e shell, 
but to the soft parts at their farthest extension, We checked for 
shell size and found the largest given by Pilsbry (1905, Manual of 
Conchology, ser. 2, 16:309) to be only 125 mm (about 5 inches) -- 
Metachatina kraussi (Pfeiffer) -- and by Bequaert (1950, Studies in 
Chatininae, p. ) only 208 mm (about 84 inches), although Bequaert 
States that the species Achatina reticulata Pfeiffer is "the second 
largest of living land shells." But not even the largest living 
pulmonate Eectes can possibly have a shell with the dimensions given 
in this news report. M. K. Jacobson 
