Dave are you there, I need your help with another shell PLEASE

[deanne]

Okay the shells you id for were part of a box of shells I bought at an Estate sell.  It's a hobby of mine by and resaling on Ebay. It gives me somethings to do. But anyways most of the shells were in boxes with little papers saying what they are. So I listed them think it was the correct information. Well I just recived and email from a gentleman from Portugal telling me that it is listed with the wrong information. This is what he wrote.

This shell it is not well described. It is in fact a Ceratostoma foliatum Gmelin, 1791 . By the way an outstanding peice . It is rare in such quality an it seems to me to be an "albino" specimen. I think that you made a confusion between Bolinus cornutus ( West Africa ) and Pteropurpura trialata ( California and Baja ). All these 3 species belong to the Muricidae familly but they are inserted in three different genus. Kind regards Kind regards


This is the auction in question I do have 12 people watching it,
My question is. Is he correct on my having the wrong information.

<a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=130212943980&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=003" target="_blank"><!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=130212943980&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=003">http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=003</a><!-- m --></a>

Please Help.

[dave r]

Yes, he is correct. The "litle shell inside" you describe is in fact the operculum, this is like a little 'trap-door' that several species of shell have. It closes the opening behind them when the animals retract into the shell. It is customary to glue the operculum of the shell to a piece of cotton wool and put it into the aperture.
I think the little data labels that came with the shells may have got mixed-up at some point. You need to be very careful in future sales.
There is a very good website called 'Hardy's internet guide to marine gastropods'(type this into your search engine) run by my friend Eddie Hardy, you could use this to check the names on the labels before you sell them by matching the specimen with the photo on the website.
If you need any more help give me your email address and I will get in touch.
Dave.

[deanne]

thank you so much