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 .. Restrictions of movements of Scottish marine molluscs Prodded snails show signs of stress Global warming may cause oyster plague Old oyster shells used to clean waste
Sets of 5 different colour postcards of living molluscs at 7 for £1 (one of each plus two extra). The cards show: (1) Trivia
monacha (da Costa), the European cowrie by Richard Platts; (3) Hapalochlaena
sp., blue-ringed octopus, by Clay Bryce; (5) Chromodoris leopardis (Rudman), a nudibranch by B. E. Picton. Also, Irish linen tea-towels with the Society's golden apple snail logo, at £4 each. Available from Dr David Reid, Zoology Department, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD. Joke:[from a Christmas Cracker] Why is a snail's shell shiny? It uses nail polish. Preparation of an Atlas of continental molluscs of France is reported in the December 1998 issue of La Lettre de Vertigo, newsletter of AFEMC, the energetic Association Francaise pour l'Etude des Mollusques Continentaux. The first phase will be to produce a provisional atlas by departments based on data received by mid-April 1999. The working document, based on the species list for France produced by Magrit and Gerhard Falkner and Theo Ripken, will be distributed by the Service du Patrimoine Naturel. Freshwater mussel genera of the World is a web site illustrating all recognised genera of Unionoida with a colour photograph. The genera are largely those of Haas (1969, except for N American fauna, which follow Turgeon et al. (1998). Information on type species and list of currently recognised taxa will be added soon. Produced by Kevin Cummings of Illinois Natural History Survey Centre for Biodiversity,it is at http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu:80/|ksc/MusselGenera.html Restrictions of movements of Scottish marine molluscs The Scottish Office in September imposed restrictions on movements of molluscs from 130 shellfish farms and of fish from half of Scotland's 350 salmon farms, to try to prevent the spread of a waterborne virus, infectious salmon anaemia, which has caused epidemics on fish farms in Norway and Canada. The disease was discovered at a salmon farm on Loch Nevis near Mallaig, and has spread to other farms. The disease is deadly to salmon, highly contagious and untreatable. [New Scientist, 26 September 1998, p. 20.] Prodded snails show signs of stress Huge ecological costs of predator avoidance have been measured in pond snails by Mark Rigby of Zurich. Predator attacks were simulated by prodding Lymnaea stagnalis. After two weeks, the fat reserves of snails prodded every day were a third of those prodded every 6 days or left alone, and almost half failed to reproduce normally, and then laid only a third as many eggs as control snails. [New Scientist, 27 June 1998, p.24.] Zebra mussels have invaded over 2000 square kilometres of soft sediment in the Great Lakes. It was previously thought that the mussels could only grow on hard surfaces. [Nature, 393,p.27.] Global warming may cause oyster plague At an international workshop on invading species and global climate change in San Mateo, California in April, Susan Utting from Conwy, North Wales, reported that Japanese oysters, Crassostrea gigas, grown by British oyster farmers could become a pest, as it is in Australia, if waters warmed allowing it to reproduce. [New Scientist, 18 April 1998 p.22] Squid spermatophores caused inflammation of the throat and mouth of a Japanese man who had previously eaten sushi. When he visited his doctor, complaining of pain in his throat and mouth, inspection revealed numerous small spindle-shaped structures in the mucosal tissue, identified as squid spermatophores. [Otolaryngology 59, 245] Old oyster shells used to clean waste Discarded oyster shells will be used to clean household waste in Kesennuma on Oshima Island, Japan, where oysters are farmed. 250 tonnes will be used in a prototype plant each year to form a 4 metre layer in the plant's filtration tanks. The shells will harbour microbes which will reduce BOD from 200 to less than 20 ppm and suspended solids from 200 to 50 ppm. By reducing acidity, they will also improve the working conditions of the microbes. [New Scientist, 16 January 1999, p.17.]
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