A note on the first registered
Mollusca in the National Zoological Collections at the Zoological Survey of
India
Basudev Tripathy 1 & R. Venkitesan 2
Date of publication (online): 26 November 2011
Date of publication (print): 26 November 2011
ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print)
Editor:Tan Koh Siang
Manuscript
details:
Ms # o2836
Received 14 June 2011
Final received 24 August 2011
Finally accepted 03 October 2011
Citation: Tripathy, B. & R. Venkitesan (2011). A note on the first registered Mollusca in the National
Zoological Collections at the Zoological Survey of India. Journal of Threatened Taxa3(11): 2217–2220.
Copyright:© Basudev Tripathy & R. Venkitesan2011. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows
unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non-profit purposes,
reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and
the source of publication.
Acknowledgements: We are thankful to the Director,
Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata for access to the Murex materials of the
NZC, Kolkata and also going through the earlier draft of the manuscript. We are
also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestion for
improving the contents of the manuscript.
Abbreviations: BMNH - British Museum (Natural History), London; USNM -
National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.; DMNH - Delaware
Museum, Greenville, U.S.A.; NZC-ZSI - National Zoological Collections at
Zoological Survey of India
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Natural history museums have long been recognized as centres
for systematic and biological research. Museum collections are also important reference
systems for the study of the diversity of living organisms. The voucher specimens collected
during various faunistic field surveys and explorations, preserved and
deposited in natural history museums help in recognizing multiple species in a
complex of closely related species, variation in traits of populations that
affect morphology, ecology, behaviour or physiology, errors or omissions in
keys or guides used for identification. The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), since its
inception, has in its custody and care, collections of the Natural History
Museum, Calcutta (Kolkata) that are over 200 years old, as well as subsequent
collections made by scientists and staff of ZSI since 1916. As per Section 39 of the Biological
Diversity Act, 2002, ZSI is notified as Designated National Repository for
Zoological Collections (NZC) of India. The NZC housed at ZSI now contains more than 30,00,000 authentically
identified specimens comprising over 90,000 known species of animals
(Ramakrishna & Alfred 2007). The NZC present in different sections of ZSI was acquired from the
Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, the Zoological section of the Indian
Museum, and collections through various surveys till now which started in the
early part of 19th century.
Many distinguished naturalists such as John McClelland,
Edward Blyth, W. Blanford, H. Blanford, T. Cantor, Francis Day, H.H. Godwin
Austen, T. Hardwicke, B. Hodgson, G. Nevill, H. Nevill, F. Stoliczka, W.M.
Sykes, W. Theobald, S.R. Tickell, J. Anderson and H. Wood-Mason significantly
contributed in documenting the fauna of the Indian subcontinent in the early years
of the 19th and 20th centuries. Numerous specimens were also presented to the Indian Museum by friends
of the department such as officers of the Geological and Botanical Surveys of
India, Indian Forest Services and the Indian Medical Services, by planters in
various parts of India, and finally by the officers of the Hoogly Pilot
Service. However, serious
zoological investigations were first undertaken in India in the last quarter of
the 19th century. During the
tenure of John Anderson (First Superintendent of the Indian Museum, 1865–1886),
there were a series of marine expeditions carried out by the Indian Museum
(Anonymous 1914). The
Investigator-I (1881–1905) and Investigator-II (1908–11 & 1921–1926)
expeditions dredged several interesting mollusks and of them some collections
were studied by E.A. Smith (1906). Several scientific teams from the ZSI also surveyed the molluscs of
India from both the terrestrial and aquatic environments. However, the history of first molluscan
collections in ZSI dates back to 1872. Dr. J. Wood-Mason, an officer of the Indian Museum collected the first
molluscan specimens from the Andaman Islands (Rao & Dey 2000). Perhaps this was due to the series of
expeditions carried out during 1865–1886. However, registering the collections started later. The records present in the Indian
Museum show that Murex trapa,
also commonly known as Rare-spined Murex, is the first registered specimen of
the then Indian Museum, which was collected by J. Barnett, Esq. Branch Pilot,
P.V. Cassandra on 22 August 1884. It is now presently in the NZC. This is an excellent example of the contributions of private donors to
the zoological collections in the Indian Museum. The record indicates that it was collected from Sandhead,
Bay of Bengal and it could be possible that J. Barnett, a Hugli Pilot, donated
these specimens to the museum (The Indian Museum: 1814–1914). The details regarding the Rare-spined
Murex are provided below.
Classification
of Murex
trapa
Phylum :
Mollusca
Class : Gastropoda
Order : Neogastropoda
Family : Muricidae
Genus : Murex
Species :trapa
Murex
trapaRoeding, 1798
1777. Purpura hystrixMartini Neues
syst. Conch. Cab.
Geo. und besch. VoI. 3, vi + 434 pp., pIs
lxvi-cxxi.
1798. Murex trapaRoeding Mus.
Bolten., p. 145. (Type locality:
Tranquebar, India)
1822. Murex rarispinaLamarck Hist. nat. Anim. Sans. Vert., 7: 158.
1845. Murex martinianusReeve Conch.
Icon., 3 Murex. sp. 72, pl.18, fig.
72.
1940. Murex trapa:
Crichton, Journal
of Bombay Natural History Society.,
42: 331, pl.3, fig.5.
1942. Murex tribulus var.trapa
Gravely, Bull. Madras Govt. Mus. New Ser. (Nat. Hist), 5(2): 49.
1952. Murex trapa:
Satyamurti, Bull.
Madras Govt.Mus. New Ser. (Nat. Hist),
1(2): 153, pl.14, fig. 4.
1961. Murex trapa:Menon, Datta Gupta & Das Gupta, Journal of Bombay Natural History Society, 58(2): 486, pl.7, fig.57.
1967. Murex trapaCernohosky, Marine
Shells of the Pacific, 1: 117, pl. 23, fig.
138.
1976. Murex trapaRadwin & D’Attilio, Murex shells of the World: 72, pl.10.fig.14.
1986. Murex trapa:
Tikader, Daniel & Subba Rao, Sea shore animals of Andaman and
Nicobar Islands, Zoological
Survey of India, p.170.
1988. Murex trapa:
Ponder & Vokes, Rec. Aust. Mus. Suppl. 8: 41. figs. 17–19, 67 G,H;71
B,C; 73D; 83G,H.
1990. Murex trapa:
Pinn, Sea
Shells of Pondicherry, Nehru Science Centre,
p. 68, fig. 117.
1991. Murex trapa:
Rao, Rao & Maitra, Fauna of Orissa, State Fauna series, 1(3): 62; Zoological Survey of India.
1993. Murex trapa:
Subba Rao & Surya Rao, Rec. Zoological Survey of India Occ. Paper No., 153: 42, pl. 5, figs. 9–11, Text fig. 17.
2000. Murex trapa:
Subba Rao & Dey, Rec. zool. Surv. India Occ. Paper No., 187: 102.
2001. Murex trapa:
Mahapatra, Fauna
of Godavari Estuary, Estuarine Ecosystem series, 4: 66. Zoological Survey of India .
2003. Murex trapa:
Subba Rao, Rec.
Zoological Survey of India Occ. Paper No.,
192: 229, pl. 54, figs.1–2.
2007. Murex trapa:
Ramkrishna, Dey, Barua & Mukhopadhya, Fauna of Andhra Pradesh, State
Fauna series, 5(7): 85. Zoological Survey
of India.
2008. Murex trapa:
Mahapatra, Fauna
of Krishna Estuary, Estuarine Ecosystem series, 5: 130. Zoological Survey of India.
Material present
in the NZC of ZSI, Kolkata: 22.viii.1884, 4 exs.
Sandheads, Bay of Bengal; coll. J. Barnett Esq., (Registration No. 001) (Image
1).
Records &
distribution: India: Madras (BMNH),
Tuticorin (USNM; DMNH), Andaman Islands (DMNH), West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra
Pradesh, Tamil Nadu (NZC-ZSI); China, Fiji, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaysia to
Japan, Mauritius, Myanmar, Philippines and Thailand (Ponder & Vokes 1988).
Type locality: Tranquebar, Tamil Nadu, India
Remarks: In re-describing Murex trapa, Ponder & Vokes (1988) selected figure No. 1056 from
two of Martini’s figures (see Martini 1777) cited by Roeding (1798) as the type
material (see Image 2). Martini
(1777: 358) gives Tranquebar, Tamil Nadu, India as the type locality and
indicates that it is very common at that locality. Reeve (1845) while describing Murex trapa recognized that Martini’s Plate No. 72 (Conchylien Cabinet)
illustrated Murex
martinianus (Martini’s Murex) but
presumably was unaware of Roeding’s earlier name for that (Roeding 1798).
The shell of this species is readily distinguished by its
tall spire, angulated whorls and short spines. It is very abundant in shallow waters. The relationship of this species may be
with the M.
scolopax species group, because it
resembles most shell characters except for having a ‘closed’, not ‘open’, outer
lip. It is included in the M. tribulus species group by some authors. According to Rao & Rao (1993), this species closely
agrees with M.
tribulus but differs in having an
elevated and acute spire, and sub-angulate whorl; canal bearing a few spines on
the upper part, and having a more prominent labial tooth. This species was also reported from the
Gulf of Kachchh by Menon et al. (1961) but the figure given by them suggests it
to be M.
tribulus. So far there is no record of this species from anywhere
along the west coast of India or along the Arabian coast, although there are
records from Madagascar and Mauritius (Ponder & Vokes 1988).
Importance of
designated national repository: The
Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) is a century-old organization (established in
1916) that mainly deals with the exploration, survey, inventorying and
monitoring of faunal diversity in various states, ecosystems and protected
areas of India (http://zsi.gov.in). It is the only organization in the country involved in the taxonomic
study of all kinds of animals, from Protozoa to Mammalia, occurring in all
possible habitats. ZSI is also the designated national repository for animal
collection and is a storehouse of zoological collections. It serves as a fundamental resource for
the identification of zoological specimens by way of comparison with known
taxa, as well as through morphological and molecular studies to compare the
lineage of taxa.
REFERENCES
Anonymous (1914). The Indian Museum, 1814-1914. Calcutta, Pub. by
the trustees of the Indian museum and printed at the Baptist Mission Press, xi
p., 1 l., 136, lxxxvii p.
Martini, F.H.W. (1777). Neues sytematisches Conchylien-Cabinet, fortgesetzt durch Johann
Heironymus Chemnitz. Nrnberg: G. N. Raspe. Vol.3 pp. vi + 1-434, Pls. 66–121.
Menon, P.K.B., A.K. Duttagupta & D. Dasgupta
(1961). The marine fauna of the Gulf of Kachchh. II. Gastropoda. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society58(2): 475–494.
Ponder, W.F. & E.H. Vokes (1988). A
revision of the Indo-West Pacific fossil and recent species of Murex s.s. and
Haustellum (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Muricidae). Records of
the Australian Museum 8(Supplement) : 1–160
Ramakrishna & J.R.B. Alfred (2007). Faunal Resources of India. Published by
Director, Zoological Survey of India,
Kolkata, 1–427pp.
Roeding, P.F. (1798). Museum Boltenianum sive Catalogus cimeliorum e tribus regnis naturae
quae olim collegerat Joa. Fried Bolten, M.D. P.D. Hamburg, viii+199pp.
Rao, N.V.S. & A. Dey (2000).Catalogue of marine molluscs of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Records of the Zoological Survey of India, Occasional paper No 187: 1–323.
Rao, N.V.S. & K.V.S. Rao (1993).Contribution to the knowledge of Indian marine mollusca Pt. 3. Family :
Muricidae. Records of Zoological Survey of India, Occasional Paper, No.153: 1–233.
Smith, E.A. (1906). Natural History Notes from RIMS Investigator Series
III. No. 10. on Mollusca from the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. The Annals and Magazine of Natural History 7(18): 157–175 & 245–263.