


Page 2 October 1979 No. 255 NEW YORK SHELL CLUB NOTES 
tourist's eye, and he is prepared to pay that much Set ele rete 
white shell. However, most of the dealers had at rie ce Conus | 
aureus paulucciae, very large, 7Omm or more, for whic a y See 
prices varying from $60 to $250! There were also ere assis fim may 
one in excellent condition, probably live-collected, or se se 
man wanted $250. The other was a poor specimen, in Sri-Lan a, for 
which they wanted $150. I was also shown several nest t° eee? 
certainly obtained by exchange, which were claimed to be ; a oat 
vian origin. Because they were said to be rare, they wante es e 
round about the $50 range, and two of these were Cypraea schilder- 
orum and Cypraea sulcidentata. There was also the odd volute, ei- 
ther from the Pacific, or from India. 
One interesting little cowry came my way in Sri-Lanka. At first 
glance I said that it was an onyx, but the diver who showed it to 
me said "No," and turned the shell over. The base and teeth were 
pure white, the ends a very deep brown, almost black. MThe shape 
and width of the aperture were not at all like onyx. I believe — 
there is an onyx described which is all white, and perhaps this is 
an intergrade, but then the aperture is so different. The next time 
I have an opportunity to visit Helene Boswell I will take this spec- 
imen with me. For the rest, although I did not come back with any- 
thing else terribly exciting, I did get some very nice specimens of 
more common species, and it was certainly a worthwhile holiday. 
*(Although the species is nomen nudum = in name only, never having 
been officially described, "pramparti" has been used by dealers 
and collectors on a popular level to designate this common Maldive 
Cone. Another more recent designation is "C. leehmani." W. E. 
Old is among several who consider the shell referable to Conus 
gubernator terminus Lamarck, 1810. --R.H.J. ) 

REVIEW: LOS UROCOPTIDAE DE CUBA (Mollusca: Pulmonata) 
by Miguel L. Jaume and Alfredo de la Torre. Ciencias Bioldgicas, 
Universidad de la Habana, Series 4, No. 53, February 1976. Soft 
cover, 122 pp (to be continued). For information as to availability 
and price write to Dr. M. L. Jaume, Museo "F. Poey," Universidad de 
Habana, Calle 25 e I, Vedado, Habana, Cuba. 
The Urocoptidae are a large family of land shells confined to the 
Neotropics (northern South America, Central America, southern North 
America including Florida, and the West Indies). (Zilch 1960:522) 
They are mainly cylindrical or narrowly fusiform shells ranging in 
size from some as large as cigars (in Mexico) to narrow species no 
thicker than a small brad. Most of them break off the nuclear 
whorls as they grow, hence the name: ur = tail + coptis = cut off. 
The urocoptids are nowhere so richly developed as in Cuba, and pos- 
sibly Hispaniola. Although a considerable number have already been 
described (usually under the generic name of Cylindrella), the pres- 
ent work introduces 36 new genera and 365 new species and subspecies. 
This may sound like an excessive number, but actually it may well 
indicate the unbelievable richness of this family in Cuba. The 
facts are that for years Dr. Carlos de la Torre, the dean of Cuban 
malacologists until his death in 1950, together with Dr. Paul Bartsch 
of the United States National Museum, was working on an exhaustive 
