Bistolida fuscomaculata (Pease, 1865)
Dark-blotched cowry, 8-16mm
In recent years, this species has been very rare at Kwajalein. In the 1960s
and 1970s, there was a healthy population on a shallow reef on the lagoon side
of the south end of Ennubuj (Carlson) Island, but this seemed to have vanished
by the 1980s. The only other place the species has been found with some regularity
is on the intertidal reef, particularly between Kwajalein and Little Bustard
and between Bigej and Meck Islands. However, finding the shell there requires
many hours of backbreaking labor looking under rocks at low tide. Specimens
have also been found in the man-made reef quarry off Gagan Island in the northern
part of Kwajalein Atoll. Other than that, specimens can very rarely be seen
to depths of about 8m on some large lagoon pinnacles, such as those off Kwadak
Island, or even more rarely in seaward reef surge channels at night, where the
few specimens found have all been in the shallower portions of the channels
nearest the intertidal reef.
The fuscomaculata
form differs from the similar Bistolida goodallii
primarily in the much darker and larger spots on each side of the shell on both
the anterior and posterior ends. Bistolida goodallii
is found in much of Polynesia (excluding Hawaii), while B. fuscomaculata
is from parts of Micronesia and Melanesia. The specific name refers to
the dark anterior and posterior blotches.
Below
is a slightly juvenile specimen that has not finished its dorsal blotchy pattern
yet.
The specimen below was found under
a small loose round chunk of finely branching Porolithon algae on the
lagoon side of Ennubuj Island on 21 October 2013. These images were captured
from video.
10.8mm shell from 16 September
1982
10.2mm shell from 29 April 1990
13.35mm shell from 27 July 2009
Created
1 April 2008
Updated 1 April 2024
Back to
cowries
Kwajalein Underwater Home