Talostolida rashleighana (Melville, 1888)
Rashleigh's cowry

Talostolida rashleighana is apparently endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. This species is usually rare and found under rocks, mostly at depths of 13 to 25m on the wide, mostly flat fringing reefs of the northern and western shores of Oahu, where it is difficult to dive during the late fall through spring months due to high surf. During the summer and fall of 1972, it was frequently seen under low rocks on the flat, pavement-like reef off Haleiwa at a depth of about 14-15m. During the same year, there were large numbers of numerous other species of cowries living in the same area. The following years, however, most of the species, including the T. rashleighana, declined greatly in numbers and T. rashleighana again became rare. This species looks most like Talostolida latior, differing primarily in animal characteristics. The red mantle of T. rashleighana bears numerous hair-like papillae sparsely interspersed with larger simple white ones. Adult shells of T. rashleighana are also nearly always smaller than adult T. latior. DNA evidence indicates this species should belong in Ovatipsa with O. chinensis. However, in shell pattern and color, it falls squarely into Talostolida, so we are presently going to leave it there.

19.5mm specimen below.

Created 25 July 2010
Updated 25 December 2020

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