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Till now, Dietmar has collected approximately
one thousand species of Gastropods, many of them rare in other areas
of the world, but fairly abundant on the reefs around Lissenung Island.
The following gallery shows species typically encountered by divers,
as well as two species that were discovered among the material collected
by Dietmar.
There are about eighty species of Cone shells
encountered around Lissenung on a regular basis. Among the interesting
finds one is likely to make are certainly Conus aureus, bullatus,
circumcisus, coffeae, cylindraceus, legatus and moluccensis.
Among the larger cowries, the collector has
a good chance to find argus, mauritiana, talpa and testudinaria, occasionally
Dietmar picks up a fresh dead aurantium, I presume he never did an
effort to find a live one because he is crazy for Ovulids. The beautiful
dark red tigris on the right was taken from one of the numerous wrecks
around Kavieng.
The mappa from New Ireland are special because
they are the true mappa viridis. The shells are purplish-brown, with
a distinct dark spot on the base.
Tiny cowries are abundant in ledges and crevices.
Lissenung has a large variety of them, including mariae and its unspotted
variety suluensis, a yet unnamed species similar to beckii, which
is a very common species at certain depths.
Cribrarula cribraria and catholicorum are lovely
from the area around Lissenung Island, and also martinii and childreni
can be gorgeous and an average diver will find a fair amount of acceptable
dead ones. In total, at least eighty species of cowries occur around
Kavieng!!
Interestingly, stolida (on the left) tends to
be reddish like the ones from Kwajalein. The specimen of onyx melanesiae
remains the only one taken by Dietmar so far, but again, what do you
expect to find by looking only at gorgonians.
lets face it: they really are nice!! A selection
from the sixty or so Ovulids found around Kavieng.
Mitroidea are incredibly diverse around Lissenung.
At least 150 species have so far been collected. Sand-samples from
certain areas have produced numerous rarities. The species shown here
are typical for depths around the 20 m mark.
Dentiovula lissenungensis Lorenz 2004 and Janaoliva
amoni Sterba & Lorenz 2005 were discovered in the material Dietmar
has collected, and there are probably a lot more new species hiding
in the untouched, fully intact coral reefs around New Ireland.
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