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NEW YORK SHELL CLUB _NoTEs No. 241 April 1978 Page 5 
MYTHS, MISCONCEPTIONS, ERRATA 
Dorothy Raeihle 
In Aristotle's time it was believed that to handle a sea hare (Aply- 
sia spp.) could cause baldness, or near baldness if looked at too 
much. (Source obscure.) ... Pliny declared that Aplysia was poison- 
ous i the HONGRS SP pe as an antidote asses! milk and 
ground asses ones, boiled together. (The Edge of the Sea. Rachel 
Carson, 1955, p. 220.) 8g e Sea, 
Aelianus wrote circa 200 AD that a pearl is produced when the light- 
ning flashes upon the open shell of the living oyster. (NOTES 140.5) 
The Incas of Peru believed that pearls were the eggs of the pearl 
oyster. (Kingdom of the Seashell, R. T. Abbott, Crown Publishers, 
Wemetie, p.° 211.) 
In the 16th and 17th centuries it was believed that stalked barna- 
cles were fruits of trees that grew by the sea, and that these 
"fruits," with neck-like stalks, feathery cirri, and shields that 
resembled the folded wings of waterfowl, ripened to produce young 
geese. Thus the origin of the common names of Goose Barnacle for 
Lepas spp. and Barnacle Goose for Branta leucopsis. In the mid-18th 
century Linne placed the barnacles in Mollusca; it was not until the 
19th century that British physician J. Vaughn Thompson published (in 
1829) life studies showing them to be crustaceans. (Wonders of Bar- 
“ee Arnold Ross and William K. Emerson, Dodd, Mead 1974, pp. 42- 
Another misconception, one that carried far into this century, was 
that the Strombidae were "carnivorous snails" ... "predatory ani- 
mals" ... "scavengers" ... "carrion eaters." These remarks accom- 
panied the description of our western Atlantic Strombus in too nae 
books to list, even through 1955. (Actually, they are herbivores. 
The misconception was a strange one, considering the many years © 
conechs have been fished for food and thus having many observers in 
_the field; certainly the observers must have noticed! Was it simply 
poor communications? At any rate, it was Robert Robertson of the 
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia who brought the correc- 
tion to our attention, writing, "Despite many statements to the 
contrary in recent American books on shells, Strombus is a special- 
ized herbivore, feeding on very delicate seaweeds algae) or swal- 
lowing sand containing dead plant material. ..." (The Natural | 
History of Some Marine Mollusks in the Bahama Islands, Proc. Phila. 
Siete Club Vol. 1, No. 5, 1959-60.) With this information, we were 
able to sustain Strombus species in the aquaria for periods of 
three years. 
As for errata, fortunate is the author who catches an embarrassing 
error in time to correct proof or at the last minute inci uselas 
errata with the new publication. The best we can do is “2 , ie 
sympathy to the authors and present corrections for your nrorme 
tion. Karl Jacobson called our attention to the confusion in the 
following two items: 
i page 233 of Living Marine Nollusks», 
ompson (American Malacologists, 3 : y 
esa cherie have served as currency. Cowries opr pe sypoed 
India and Africa and shell-beads or wampum ~~ white sie mirage inte 3 
of the venerid Mercenaria and black from those of the whe 
by C. M. Yonge and Tt & 
the authors write, "Many 
