NEW YORK SHELL CLUB NOTES 
Page 4 December 1979 No, 257 
a leisurely 24-hour snack. Ae 
With the above in mind, Dave soon found an acceptable die or his 
captives. Tiny brine shrimp, which furnished the Oe ee aad were 
trapped and polished off with gusto --- and with the s ia ae 
speed of a cross between Daniel Boone and a Hoover ve ae “hate . 
For the salad course, a little algae scraped off le Fone L 
from time to time put in the aquarium gave balance e eek 
And a totally new item was added to prior menu records clita tole 
tively offered shreds of scallop were seized with alacrity . : 
downed without hesitation. Under this feeding regimen the two chi- 
tons survived in the aquarium for well over Six months. 

Placiphorella velata Dall, 1879 (Size exaggerated) 
in feeding position 
(After McLean, reproduced in FESTIVUS) 
Although all Placiphorella possess the same mantle and tentacle 
structure, slaciphorella velata so far is the only species suffi- 
ciently accessible in the intertidal zone (where it is rare) and 
the relatively high subtidal (where it is at best uncommon) to have 
furnished specimens for comprehensive observation of its feeding 
habits. Assumedly all species of the genus can feed in similar 
fashion if suitable live prey is available. For those species liv- 
ing in greater depths --- and Placiphorella have been dredged from 
depths of over 500 meters --- e availability of such prey is 
Somewhat speculative, but a diet of sponge and hydroids has shown 
in the gut content of dredged specimens. 
Placiphorella velata ranges from at least western Vancouver Island 
on the north to beyond Punta Banda on the south; I have collected 
it intertidally at both these extremes. It has also been reported 
as far south as Magdalena Bay, on the outer coast of Baja Califor- 
nia. At the northern portion of its range it appears well up into 
the low intertidal, but like so many of the northern mollusca, as 
the water warms toward the south it appears then to prefer deeper 
and consequently colder situations. Its intertidal tolerance seems 
to drop off quite abruptly near Monterey, where the cold northern 
upwelling decreases, and it could be expected to resume to at least 
a Slight degree to the south of Punta Banda where another cold up- 
welling begins. But in the San Diego area, as indicated by the 
