Photo of the day (116): Bostryx
Today some pictures of living specimens of Bostryx reentsi (Philippi, 1851). This species was described from "near Chala" in Dept. Arequipa, Peru. Several years ago I received a subfossil shell from B. Verdcourt, which had been collected by O. Whaley amidst a Nazca Culture midden on an archaeological site near Ullujaya, Dept. Ica (reported in my 2008 paper on carination, http://www.repository.naturalis.nl/document/122256). This site is approx. 200 km further north from Chala along the coast, without known localities in between.
This week I received an email from Oliver Whaley with the first pictures for this species of live snails. Oliver writes: "[This] huge pre-columbian midden consisting entirely of snails [...] On top I found several alive".
He also notes "The disjunct nature of the populations is interesting in terms of dispersal and the comparison we have of the plants between the two areas".
Thanks Oliver for digging up these interesting pictures!
