Oliva sayana Ravenel, 1834, Lettered Olive

[Marlo]

Recently I started to focus my presentations on the more common Florida shells. Last week I started to address O. sayana. Over the years I had accumulated quite a few. It was difficult to choose which ones to photograph. So, I solved my dilemma by deciding to present shells from the entire range in the USA. I certainly did not have complete coverage, but thanks to many generous collectors over the years I did have a lot.

The following initial 55 slides present photos of 62 specimens, probably more than you'll want to see. But, I've presented at least one shell from every county represented in my collection starting with North Carolina and working around Florida to Texas.

I'd like to consider this a work in progress in hopes that enough readers with first-hand collected material from states and counties not represented will be encouraged to provide specimens (loan for photo session) or good images (and data) so that we can create a complete tally of the distribution of O. sayana in the USA. I particularly would hope to hear from:

Texas -I was able to illustrate only two dead-collected specimens
Alabama - Douglas N. Shelton, Alabama Malacological Research Center, reports O. sayana "off the Coast of Alabama."
Louisiana - Emilio García and Harry Lee have created a Louisiana checklist and report O. sayana "in the offshore waters of Louisiana."
Mississippi - Never have found a list or paper for Mississippi seashells.

If you would like to contribute specimens (I'll be happy to photograph and return) or images, contact me using the email icon below or at marlo@cfl.rr.com. I'll create slides with your material and insert it appropriately into the geographic series. And, if you have some great samples from areas already covered that you'd like to share, feel free to contacte me about them too.

[Marlo]