Please help to idetify

It's a spindle cowry (Prosimnia semperi). Indonesia?

Thx

Indonesia

Have Prosimnia semperi and Prosimnia piriei been synonymized? To me Darecky's critter looks almost identical to the pictures of P piriei in Coleman's 2002 Sea Shells.

Leslie, do you know what distinguishes P. piriei from P. semperi? This looks just like semperi to me, but I don't know the distinction between those two.

Not really, but I can check with one of our mollusk specialists when I get back to the museum. In Coleman's "Nudibranchs & Sea Snails Indo-Pacific Guide" (2001) the picture identified as P. semperi looks like an orange version of Dareky's. In his 2003 book, "2002 Sea Shells" images identified as P. semperi are very different and these pictures of P. piriei are spot-on for Darekcy's, even to the red-and-white color and the gorgonian it's on. Gosliner, Behrens, & Williams say that P. semperi is found on different species in the family Melithaeidae. In Coleman 2003 the hosts are listed as Euplexaura and Echinogorgia which are in different families so maybe P. semperi & P. piriei can be easily distinguished by the gorgonians they live on. ???

oops, that last sentence should read " In Coleman 2003 the hosts of P. piriei are listed as Euplexaura and Echinogorgia which are in different families so maybe P. semperi & P. piriei can be easily distinguished by the gorgonians they live on.

It may be that the guides I have are wrong. Debelius (Nudibranchs and Sea Snails) shows P. semperi on Euplexaura, as does the Halstead marine life book for PNG (Coral Sea Reef Guide). I have the Gosliner guide, and note that it says the color of the mantle will vary depending on the host, so I'm not sure how much we can distinguish them based on color. Looks like Coleman 2003 (which I don't have) would be the most recent information, so it could be that they're now better distinguished. Sounds like a book I need to pick up!

I will leave this determination to the experts..

I will leave this determination to the experts.. 

Me, too. Darecky, is it okay if I forward this to some of my colleagues for id? Thanks, Leslie

Yes, please.

Here's the reply I got from Lindsay Groves, who is the mollusc collection manager here at NHMLAC and specializes in cowries & ovulids:

"I would concur with the Prosimnia piriei identification based mostly on the illustration in Coleman (2003:93). An illustration of P. semperi in Okutani (2000) [Marine mollusks in Japan] seems to agree with the Gosliner & others id and even lists the gorgonian host as Melithaea sp. as well. Liltved (1989:125) [Cowries and their relatives of southern Africa] lists P. semperi as living on melithaeid gorgonians, too. Wu & others (1990:275, fig. 2) [Three ovulids (Gastropoda: Ovulidae) from southern Taiwan] shows P semperi living on Mopsella aurantia (Family Melithaeidae). Unfortunately the holotype of P. piriei was collected as an empty shell on a beach amongst dead gorgonians of unknown affinity. Never-the-less, your illustration best matches P. piriei. Hope this information helps."

that's probably as good an id as we can get without the specimen.

Cheers, leslie