Page 6 October 1 No. 2 NEW YORK SHELL CLUB NOTES 
= slide in your creatures gently, 
one-quarter full of sea water, tilt, Aa: mr aie a 
cap tightly, then lay the jar on its side and carr i 
This position will allow a good surface expanse for natural aera 
tion. (Better put the jar in a plastic bag.) 
m to be smother- 
The chief causes for loss of living specimens see 
ing -- either by plastic bags, overcrowding, too-deep unaerated war 
ter, or fouling -- and overheating. Aeration has here been discuss 
ed; fouling is obvious to sight or smell -- change the water. Too 
many specimens have been lost from overheating in the field: When- 
ever possible, use a white or light-colored pail which reflects the 
light and avoids much heat buildup. If it is very hot, throw a 
white cloth over the pail. If you have material in a small pail, 
you might set it in a larger pail, double boiler style, with cool 
changes of water in the larger, bottom pail. And don't leave the 
pails in a hot car; set them in the shade under the car when you 
make a stop of any duration. 
Occasionally you may collect a specimen that continues to flail a- 
round instead of settling down and clinging. You might just as well 
return that specimen to its habitat as its stress would disturb the 
whole aquarium. Then you might find both a carnivore and its natu- 
ral prey together in your pail. If the carnivore feeds in this 
strange environment it is a good bet that it will adapt to the aquar- 
ium; the same goes for a herbivore that starts to graze even before 
you leave the beach. 
If you are hoping to observe reproduction, and thus want to collect 
both sexes, remember that in many gastropod species the female is 
more rotund than a male of the same height. 
Incidentally, Melongena and Fasciolaria are NOT recommended for any 
aquarium holding mixed species, as they are entirely too predatory. 
(The ea article appeared also in C.0.A. BULLETIN No. 16, June, 
1979. 
CYPRAEA LANGFORDI Kuroda, 1938 
Robert H. Janowsky 
I must admit that when I started doing this continuing series about 
members of the Cypraeidae for this publication I had not intended 
to write about Cypraea langfordi. Quite frankly, it was a species 
that had little appeal for me, and I felt I could add very little 
to the few facts known about this rare, deep-water cowrie. The 
specimen whose photograph accompanies this article Changed my mind 
about Cypraea langfordi, since it is without a doubt the most beau- 
tiful of its species that I have been privileged to see. For sheer 
beauty, this specimen can be compared favorably to almost any Cyp- 
raea that one would care to name. 
Cypraea langfordi was first named by Kuroda in 1938 in VENUS, vol- 
ume 8, pp. 132-133, and has always been a rare species in collec- 
tions. In his book THE LIVING COWRIES Burgess gives its geograph- 
ical distribution as the Kii Straits and Tosa Bay in Japan, ata 
depth of from 40 to 100 fathoms. As ig the case with a few other 
deep-water Cypraea from this area, the shell has also been col- 
