Erronea pulchella aliguayensis

Van Heesvelde & Deprez 2002

a new subspecies from deep water off the Philippines

In the deep waters of the Philippines, namely Aliguay, Dipolog, North West of Mindanao, an interesting Erronea has been trawled from 200-250 m which was named aliguayensis by the two Belgian conchologists Jo Van Heesvelde and Jan Deprez. I am giving a short report here for those who have missed the original description which appeared in La Conchiglia. The assignment to Erronea pulchella was done on the basis of the characteristic brown teeth extending away from the aperture on both sides. Also typical slender-shelles E. pulchella are known from the Philippines, usually they are assigned to the variety novaebritanniae, which is often smaller and spread throughout the Philippines, Melanesia to Fiji. One might wonder a little why the authors have not taken the more courageous step of introducing aliguayensis as a full species, but may be because slightly subadult specimens resemble pulchella to greater extent. Apparently, aliguayensis is an archaic deep water member of the widespread pulchella-group, and certainly the most beautiful one. Besides the feature of the dentition, there is little that aliguayensis has in common with the slender-shelled pulchella. Here I am showing a set of three typical specimens of aliguayensis. Note the high marginal callus nearly giving the shell a hungerfordi-like look from the dorsal view. The color of the base may vary from whitish to orange. The size ranges from 24 to 35 mm. Until now, perfect specimens of aliguayensis which strong callus along the margins are rare and a valuable highlight in any advanced cowry collection.

uploaded 2002