Useful Websites

Tentacle issues 9 and 10 are now available in PDF format on the web at: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~cowie/

Tentacle is the newsletter of the Mollusc Specialist Group of the Species Survival Commission of IUCN, and essential reading for up-to-date information on molluscan conservation issues worldwide. Rob Cowie, the Tentacle editor, is inviting contributions for issue 11.

Opisthobranch workers will need no introduction to Steve Long's http://seaslug.com site, but for anyone else stuck inside on a wet and windy winter, the links to 7,500 colour photographs of these stunning creatures will re-awaken their enthusiasm.

Apple Snails have a good site at http://applesnail.net/ authored by Stijn Ghesquiere, with sections on their care, ecology, species, anatomy, embryology, genetics, pesta staus etc.

ARKive request for images of endangered British molluscs

ARKive is a not for profit initiative of The Wildscreen Trust & aims to digitally preserve images of endangered species for educational & scientific purposes.

Currently images of endangered species are scattered throughout a variety of commercial, specialist and private collections & owners are being asked to donate copies of their images to ARKive to create one central record.

The Heritage Lottery Fund have donated £1.6 million to ARKive, for research to start on the British Chapter. Over 1000 British endangered & some common species will be available on the web. We are currently looking for images & footage of the 499 species on the English Nature Species Recovery Plan Priority List, which includes 12 Molluscs. As these are endangered species, it is societies such as the Malacological Society of London that have been most helpful to us in being able to provide images.

If anyone has images of the following species or other endangered British molluscs, we would be very interested to hear from you:

• Sandbowl snail Catinella arenaria
• Freshwater pearl mussel Margaritifera margaritifera
• Glutinous snail Myxas glutinosa
• A freshwater pea mussel Pisidium tenuilineatum
• Depressed river mussel Pseudanodonta complanata
• Shining ramshorn snail Segmentina nitida
• Lagoon sea slug Tenella adspersa
• Water snail Valvata macrostoma
• Whorl snail Vertigo angustior
• Whorl snail Vertigo genesii
• Whorl snail Vertigo geyeri
• Desmoulin's whorl snail Vertigo moulinsiana

Unfortunately ARKive cannot afford to pay for images, but will cover all postal costs etc. All images that are digitised into the ARK will be credited to the donor & contact details made available on the website. To protect donors & their rights, ARKive has drawn up a Copyright Licence Agreement. This and further information are available if you would like to get involved with ARKive.

I hope you will be interested in this project, current collaborators & supporters include BBC, Oxford Scientific Films, Granada Wild, Bruce Coleman Collection, WWF, WCMC, Flora & Fauna International as well as many amateur naturalists & photographers.

Direct line: +44 (0)117 915 7141
Fax: +44 (0)117 915 7105
Email: emma...@wildscreen.org.uk

Morpho - General Taylor

Many members may not be aware that John Taylor, our Journal editor for 17 years, and former President, officially retired last year, although he will continue to work as before at the Natural History Museum. To celebrate, a dinner party was held in Vienna, where friends spoke about Johnís career. Alan Kohn of the University of Washington in Seattle, wrote a poem based on W. S. Gilbertís patter song ëI am the very model of a modern Major Generalí from the ëPirates of Penzanceí. This seemed ideal for the occasion, and is reproduced here, along with a few photographs of the occasion by David Reid.

Peter Mordan

He is the very model of a mollusc Morpho-General,

With knowledge gastropodical, bivalve and bio-mineral;

He knows the kings of England, and he quotes the times historical,

From Blackdown Greensand (Albian) to K-T bounds meteorical;

Heís very well acquainted too with matters shell mechanical,

He understands equations, both the simple and organical;

About binominal nomenclature he teems with lots o' news

Of rastafarian lucinoids dredged up from bottom ooze.

He knows the mythic history of their pipeworks periostracal,

Not religious but thiophilous, their dreadlocks wax agnostical.

He quotes in elegiacs on the food of mitrid gastropods,

Distinguishing the sipunc hooks from the undetermined clods.

In conids he can floor peculiarities phyletic,

And he tells undoubted turrids by their features morphometric.

Then he can hum a fugue of Duplicaria's excursions,

And whistle all the airs of Pervicacia's perversions.

He uses foregut characters to ascertain relations

Of all the toxoglossan clades, with few prevarications.

In short in matters gastropod, bivalve and biomineral,

He is the very model of a mollusc Morpho-General.

He's served BM and NMH a third part of a century,

With field molluscan studies widespread, plucky and adventury,

From Guam to Seychelles and Aldabra,

Red Sea, and all around Australia.

Age catches up: the flawed requirement

Of forcibly compelled retirement;

But fear not, John, molluscan Morpho-General,

Carry on research, and editing the journal.

All wish you well in matters gastropod, bivalve, and bio-mineral,

We hail the very model of a mollusc Morpho-General!

A.J.K. (with apologies to W.S.G.)

From the dinner:

John Taylor himself.

Fred Wells, Thierry Backeljau, Emily Glover, John Taylor; Alison Kay, Kathe Jansen, Jørgen Knudsen; Alan Kohn.

Gerhard Steiner, Brian Morton, Liz Platts, Gerhard Haszprunar; Rüdiger Bieler, Paula Mikkelson, Philippe Bouchet; Winston Ponder, Kathie Way. Suzanne Williams.

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For Sale - Back Numbers of Journal of Molluscan Studies

The following issues are offered for sale to members, at £5 for each of the loose parts. This is a small fraction of the annual subscription, and far less than would be charged by commercial sellers! Bids are invited for the long journal runs.

53-65 inclusive (two sets of these volumes)
38(4)	57(1,3,4,suppl.)
46(2,3)	58(1,3,4)
47(1,2,3)	59(1,4)
48(l)	61(l)
52(2,3)	62(1,2,3,4)
53(1,3)	63(1,2,3,4)
54(1,2,3,4)	64(3,4)
55(1,2,4)	65(3,4)
56(1,2,3,4)	66(2,3,4)

Also available are: Malacologia vols. 1- 15. J. Mar. Biol. Ass. U.K. 59-71, and 72(1-3)

Enquiries to: Dr David Reid or Dr John Taylor

Mollusca Research Group, Department of Zoology, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7942 5051. Fax: +44 (0) 20 7942 5054 E-mail: dgr...@nhm.ac.uk

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Molluscan Research Grants

The Malacological Society of London Centenary Research Grants, up to £500, are conferred referentially to students and researchers without professional positions, regardless of nationality or membership. Application forms available on The Societyís web-site: http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/MalacSoc.

The Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland grants up to £1000 for projects, preferentially on biogeography, ecology, taxonomy, conservation or palaeontology. Membership is not necessary. Application form from the Secretary. Email: secr...@conchsoc.org.

Unitas Malacologica offers a research grant each year of 1000 Euro for expenses in research. Membership not necessary, but nomination by a member is required. Applications to UM secretary, Dr Peter Mordan.
Email: pbm...@nhm.ac.uk.

The American Malacological Society awards up to 4 research grants up to $1000 for student members. Details at: http://coa.acnatsci.org/ams/students.html.

Conchologists of America grants up to $1500 to qualified persons for field or lab research. Awards are only made to citizens or permanent inhabitants of the Americas or students in graduate school in the USA. Details of how to apply at: http://data.acnatsci.org/conchnet/coagrant.html.