VOL. 38 z NO. 2 z OCTOBER 2008 PALLIDULA Page 2 COVER PAGE Pleurotomaria (Bayerotrochus ) midas (Bayer, 1965) A stunning live collected specimen of this very rare species of Caribbean slit shell. Collected by submersible off Cat Island, Bahamas at 300 metres. Coll. J.Batt. PALLIDULA Page 3 THERE’S MORE TO THE CONVENTION WEEKEND THAN THE SHELL SHOW by Tom Walker The weekend of the 2008 Shell Convention in April turned out to be a very successful few days for obtaining shells. Everyone who attended the meeting in Theydon Bois will concur that it was a highlight of the Club events; everything was perfect – shells, people, attendance, auction, weather, food and much else. But the weekend wasn’t just the Convention – shells in the field were an essential component. I am delighted that Peter Dance was staying with me over the weekend and we took the opportunity to do some shelling around the south of England. He arrived from Carlisle on Thursday, and on Friday we decided to go to the Weymouth/Portland area in Dorset to look for some relatively rare shells. After a two hour drive our first stop was Dorchester for a much needed cup of coffee, although the highest priority was to find a shop selling lardy cake! Peter had obtained some here on a previous visit some 30 years ago and was determined to purchase some more; after enquiring about its availability we ended up at some tearooms where he acquired their last slab. So the day was already off to a great start. 5 mm Truncatella subcylindrica and Myosotella denticulata; left: the habitat with bushes of seablite and sea purslane; centre: the shells under the pebbles; right: M. denticulata to show the row of labial teeth. Our first shelling stop was The Fleet on Chesil Bank, Wyke Regis. We knew that Truncatella subcylindrica had been found there in the past, and this was our target. A walk along the shingle for about 200 yards brought us to some clumps of seablite and sea purslane under which it had previously been recorded. On turning over a few pebbles in a suitably damp area there they were; not one or two but in hundreds, up to 20 or so under individual pebbles. This is considered a rare shell, but certainly in this location it lives in great abundance. Mixed with the Truncatella were other larger shells which looked like Myosotella; once cleaned and examined the multiple rows of dentition along the labial side of the aperture proved them to be Myosotella denticulata, quite different from the more frequent M. myosotis. We finally looked among some eel grass at the water’s edge in the hope of finding Paludinella littorina, but unfortunately without success. After a pint and sandwich in a local hostelry we moved to the limestone cliffs near Easton on Portland Island. This whole area is rather bleak, being the remnants of many decades of Portland Stone quarrying. We scrambled among the rocks down to the beach and then up again to the cliff top looking for suitable habitats for Truncatellina callicratis, another rare shell. None were apparent wherever we looked, although many other shells were found, particularly numerous being Lauria cylindracea. However, our visit here was not in vain; several small bags of debris were taken home for wet sieving and these produced the goods. One bag from a rabbit burrow contained no less than 20 dead specimens of Truncatellina, so clearly this shell is abundant in the area (and a subsequent visit produced another 50 from the same spot, as well as a dead shell of Testacella maugei). It is no surprise that we didn’t see the Truncatellina on site; their minute size (1.8 x 0.8 mm) made them far too small to see, and it was only with the aid of a microscope after sieving with a 0.5 mm sieve that PALLIDULA Page 4 they became apparent. Altogether we found 14 species in this desolate dry landscape, including a single specimen of Pyramidula pusilla, a shell which I had personally never collected before. So our first day of the weekend proved to be hugely rewarding. 1 mm 1 mm The habitat of Truncatellina callicratis in abandoned Portland stone quarries, with the minute shell shown on the right. We were up early on Saturday to get to Theydon Bois in time to help set up the show. But I won’t say any more about the Convention, other than to repeat what a great day it was; read all about it elsewhere in this edition of Pallidula. Sunday brought another chance to seek some elusive shells, and our first stop was by the River Thames at Kew in London. Balea biplicata is known to occur here, and indeed a local reserve has been established specifically to conserve this shell; when the new National Archives building was planned several years ago it was moved to avoid one of the habitats of this rare shell. We found several dead specimens beside the Thames path (and outside the reserve!) with one or two live examples; another unexpected find here (to me, anyway) was Hygromia cinctella, which I had only previously seen in Cornwall. 1 cm The verge beside the Thames path at Kew, containing Balea biplicata; the fence on the left is the boundary of the Snail Reserve at Kew Riverside Park. The afternoon took us to Burnham Beeches north of Slough in Buckinghamshire, where on a previous visit I had found Spermodea lamellata, and where, 50 years ago, Peter had found Acicula fusca. We wandered around for some time turning up numerous logs and sticks, but never finding what we were after. However, we eventually came to the spot which I recognised as being the area containing Spermodea, and within a couple of minutes there it was, several occurring within an area of about 20 yards across, together with Euconulus fulvus. What was interesting was that wood ants, abundant elsewhere in the woods, were virtually absent in this area; is this coincidence or is there a connection? One strange observation was an ant with its pincers deeply embedded into a small slug, perhaps regarding it as food – a sight Peter had never seen before. We then meandered back towards the car, stopping at some hollows among the beech trees, the type of habitat where Peter had earlier found Acicula under the bark of a decaying log. Searching was fruitless (although Spermodea was again found) until I turned over a small stick and there it was – a single Acicula confirmed with a hand lens. A shout to Peter obtained the response of “You mean Azeca, don’t you?”, but I am pleased to say he was convinced when he also looked at it. Sadly no PALLIDULA Page 5 more were found, and later examination of several bags of leaf litter did not produce a single Acicula, only large numbers of Carychium tridentatum. 1 mm 1 mm 1mm Burnham Beeches, showing the typical habitat of Spermodea lamellata (centre) and Acicula fusca (right). The long weekend was not over, for Peter’s train back to Carlisle did not leave until Monday lunchtime, so on the Monday morning we went to the River Loddon just south of Reading, where Pisidium tenuilineatum had been recorded in 1972. Our site was an area of muddy river bank within a grove of cricket bat willow trees – the farmer here supplies a fair proportion of the timber used for this purpose in England. Scooping in the mud/shingle bottom produced many tiny bivalves as well as Anodonta and Unio. Later sieving and sorting under the microscope confirmed that P. tenuilineatum was present, along with P. moitesserianum and P. hibernicum and numerous other freshwater molluscs, although nearly all dead. So a great shelling weekend came to an end. What more could any conchologist want? The best of company, weather, shells and, of course, the BSCC Convention. PALLIDULA Page 6 SCOTTISH SHELL SHOW, EDINBURGH, 29th MARCH 2008 by Ingrid Thomas For those of you who weren’t there, you missed a treat. For a start, Edinburgh is one of the friendliest of cities, and it’s always a joy to go there. Secondly, and most importantly, 30th March was the occasion of the first Scottish Shell Show. It was well worth the trip, and I’m sure everybody else who journeyed north of the border felt the same. I arrived the day before, having travelled up from Oxford by train, and I checked into Sandeman House, a B&B recommended by the show’s organisers because it was a short bus-ride from the venue. My hosts, Joyce and Neil Sandeman (and their tail-wagging dog Macintosh), were as welcoming as it’s possible to be, and when I saw the crisp Persil-white bed-linen in my room I knew I was in for a pampering two-night stay. Up at the crack of dawn, and at 7.00 am prompt there was proper porridge for breakfast (it had taken an hour to cook), and a huge choice of other fare that would have done any five-star hotel proud. As I was going to sell copies of my book at the show, I had taken a table, to be shared with Peter Dance and his books. I wanted to be there early to set up my stall, so, full of sustaining breakfast, I caught a nearby bus headed directly to the venue. No sooner had I bought my ticket than I heard a cheerful “Ingrid, hello!”, and there on the same bus was Tom Walker, all the way from Reading, surrounded by his luggage, and looking remarkably fresh bearing in mind it was still pretty early on a windy Edinburgh morning.