Pustularia cicercula (Linnaeus, 1758)
Chick Pea cowry, 12-22mm

Pustularia cicercula is distinguished from the other chick peas by its bumpy, white to cream-colored dorsum. The bumpiness, however, is somewhat variable and at one end of its range of variation, the shells appear to intergrade with those of P. margarita, which is considered by some to be a variation of P. cicercula. However, the two species (or forms) differ in habitat preference. Pustularia cicercula is most common buried deep in rubble on certain lagoon pinnacles or in caves at night in those same areas, where P. margarita is rather rare. Smaller specimens of Pustularia cicercula are occasionally found in seaward reef surge channel caves, but the species is much less common in that habitat than Pustularia margarita. Most specimens are seen between the depths of about 6-23m. Both P. cicercula and P. margarita appear to have similar wide Indo-Pacific distributions. The subspecies in the Marshall Islands is Pustularia cicercula cicercula.

The mantle quite effectively hides the shell.

This subadult was under a piece of dead coral on top of T-buoy pinnacle at night on 10 September 2016.

According to Lorenz (2017), if the dorsum even has just a trace of dorsal bumps, it is Pustularia cicercula rather than the similarly colored but always completely smooth Pustularia margarita. Consequently, the specimens below with just a few bumps primarily around the anterior and poster ends are P. cicercula despite their superficial resemblance to P. margarita. This level of bumps is reminiscent of Pustularia cicercula takahashii, a subspecies currently thought to be restricted to the Hawaiian Islands.

Although the specimen from Enewetak Atoll in the lower two photos is mostly smooth, apparently even a trace of bumps around the extremities is enough to identify it as P. cicercula.

19.2mm, 20 November 1982

20.9mm, 20 November 1982

The relatively smooth form below. 17.0mm, 9 July 1993

A comparison of the four Pustularia species found in the Marshalls: upper left P. cicercula, 20.9mm; upper right P. margarita, 17.95mm; lower left P. bistrinotata, 18.35mm; and lower right P. globulus, 17.7mm. .

Created 1 April 2008
Updated 13 May 2024

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