Page 6 January 1980 No. 258 NEW YORK SHELL CLUB NOTES 
bu. Given the extremely 
300 miles southeast of Mactan Island, Ce eles ete oe the 
i ions of sever 
ee a og be neat razier, 1878 only from around 
Pterynotus, such as P. bednalli B 
Darwin, North Australia, and P. phyllopterus ter ae 
from Martinique and Guadeloupe in the rie hg ee ae ay 
i i mus ° 
difference of several hundred epee ve kenda hove Heard ab several 
in the past few years, seen at lea e 
more Beecindhe of =. joebbecki collected from around Punta Engano 
in Cebu -- but to date have not heard of P. miyokoae from Cebu. 
It is possible that Kosuge may have been led astray by Ua Posed 
that Cebu City is now the shell-dealing center of Mace pe Palcr, 
and specimens collected from many of the neighboring islands (suc 
as Samar, Palawan, and Mindanao) are available from the dealers 
there. 
Secondly, Kosuge reports (in brackets) a depth of 200 meters for 
the specimens that he has studied. As I have reported before in 
these pages, everyone who is familiar with the nets that are sunk 
in the Philippine waters to collect shells such as these realizes 
that the "fishermen" do not give an accurate picture of the depth 
to which they sink their nets. They report only the length of the 
submerged cable, which does not drop vertically but drifts down at 
an angle greater or smaller according to the currents and the buoy- 
ancy of the line. This factor may reduce the reported depth by as 
much as a third, since the nets are not heavy nor are they heavily 
weighted since heavy tackle to haul them back up is not generally 
employed. 
Thirdly, it has been no secret that for the past several years spec- 
imens of a Pterynotus very similar to P. loebbecki have been col- 
lected from deep water from off the Russell islands (part of the 
Solomons). Closer examination of these specimens will reveal that 
they are identical in every respect to P. miyokoae except that they 
are not as brightly colored (they are tan to flesh uniformly instead 
of the brown and white, or brown and tan, of the Philippine speci- 
mens). They do share the same formation of the varices (although 
they are not as elegantly developed and sculptured) and the white 
parietal shield which separates (adeedind to Kosuge) this species 
from P. loebbecki. The parietal shield of P. loebbecki is pink and 
the varix is notched, formed of two parts rather than the single 
continuous formation of the varix in the new species. I certainly 
think that it would have been beneficial for the original descrip- 
tion to have included some mention of this shell from the Solomons, 
too. 
The fact that no less of an authority on the Muricidae than my good 
friend Tony D'Attilio and Dr. Hans Bertsch were preparing a paper 
in which they were to name what is now Pterynotus miyokoae as a new 
species adds a great deal of support to the legitimate specific 
status of this muricid. One must applaud the decision of Bertsch 
and D'Attilio to publish their carefully researched work on this 
Species as a supplement to Kosuge's description.* 
of D'Attilio's detailed drawings of the amps SSN iret eeaty fee 
koae would be very informative, a great deal more descriptive than 
Kosuge's statement: "Each wing is most expanded at the shoulder 
margin, attached to the base of the varix of the preceding whorl 
situating just behind the wing of the preceding whorl, and extends 
