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Mollusca—W. G. Lyons Macroinvertebrate Checklists Camp et al. 1998
unreferenced names (e.g., Nassarius sp. A). On an encouraging
note, several of these species are the subjects
of ongoing studies, so names for some of them may be
available soon.
Copies of the draft list were sent to three reviewers
(see acknowledgments), each of whom provided
comments that improved the final document.
References
The accompanying compendium of references presents
citations for nearly 1,100 books, journal articles,
dissertations, theses, contract reports, and popular articles
containing information on the classification,
identification, distribution, life history, and ecology of
the shallow-water mollusks of Florida.The list is by no
means complete. For example, the classic works in
which many of Florida’s most well-known mollusks
were described (e.g., the works of Linnaeus, Gmelin,
Lamarck, Say, and others) have been omitted, although
an attempt has been made to include early faunal surveys
that documented and described Florida species
(e.g., Conrad, 1846; Calkins, 1878; Dall, 1884). Many
popular guides to the identification of Florida mollusks
have been listed, but some are included principally
for their historical value (e.g., Aldrich and Snyder,
1936; Morris, 1947), and some of the less useful paperback
guides to seashells have been omitted.
Likewise, most of the popular guides to worldwide
seashells have been omitted, even though some of
them include information on Florida shells. Many papers
concerned only with the mollusks of Florida’s
deeper-water shelf and slope have also been omitted.
Papers describing the births, romances, diets, interspecific
associates, competitive struggles, deaths,
and similar facets of the natural history of Florida mollusks
have been included on the assumption that such
information can lead to a better understanding of the
organisms by those who would study or manage them.
On the other hand, reports of the ordinary data of
fisheries (effort, landings, and economics) have been
excluded, as such information is generally available
elsewhere. Also excluded are papers on the more complex
aspects of molluscan biology, such as anatomy, embryology,
and biochemistry. Thus, a paper on prey
preferences of a predatory gastropod would be included,
but a paper describing the cell structure of
that predator’s stomach wall would not.
One very useful source of information on Florida’s
molluscan fauna is S. D. Kaicher’s Card Catalogue of
World-Wide Shells, a series of 60 card packs published
individually between 1973 and 1992. Each pack consists
of approximately 108 3 × 5 cards dedicated to a single
family (or occasionally two related families) of marine
gastropods, and each card presents the name, range,
diagnostic comments, and illustrations for a different
species of that family. Nearly all of the packs contain
cards treating species of the Florida fauna, but such information
is readily available elsewhere for some families
(e.g., Strombidae), so those packs are not cited
here. In other cases, however, the information in the
card packs is superior in accuracy and quality of illustration
to any other information on those species,
and an effort has been made to list the most pertinent
of those packs. Examples of packs especially useful as
identification aids for Florida species include those
on Olividae (especially Olivella), Nassariidae, and Turridae.
A few articles from shell club newsletters have
been included as examples of this information resource.
Such articles can provide a wealth of information
on local faunas, and in many instances they constitute
the only record of local occurrence for a given
species. Many useful and informative articles have
been published in Shell-O-Gram, the newsletter of the
Jacksonville Shell Club, in Seafari, the now-defunct
newsletter of the Palm Beach County Shell Club, and
in similar publications. Some of those newsletter articles
have been later cited in scientific reports, but this
is not peer-reviewed literature, and such articles
should be used with caution. On the other hand, some
of the shell collectors who write these articles are more
knowledgable identifiers of local fauna than are some
of the biologists who identified mollusks for some of
the environmental surveys cited in the present compendium.
In fact, there seems to be an increasing tendency
towards the publication of incorrect molluscan
identifications in the peer-reviewed scientific literature,
especially in papers reporting general faunal assessments,
and some of those papers listed here contain
remarkable errors. The best rule is to accept that information
which seems reasonable and seek verification
for that which does not, regardless of the source.
Acknowledgments
Dr. Paula M. Mikkelsen, Department of Invertebrates,
American Museum of Natural History, New York, and
Dr. James F. Quinn, Jr., Florida Department of Environmental
Protection, Florida Marine Research Institute,
St. Petersburg, each reviewed the entire draft list,
and Dr. Kerry B. Clark, Department of Biological Sciences,
Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, reviewed
sections on aplacophorans and heterobranch
and opisthobranch gastropods. Each of the reviewers
has extensive experience working with the marine
molluscan fauna of Florida, and each contributed valuable
comments that improved the list.This effort also
6 FMRI Technical Report TR-3