Conchology Section
Auckland Museum Institute

President's Report
Fellow Conchologists
Thank you Margaret for your presentation on Marginellidae and for all the other information you shared with us. Congratulations too on the publication of your paper on Ostracods. We admire the work that you are doing.

We welcomed five new people to the meeting - Peter (Barbara's work colleague), Betty, Joan, Jocelyn, and Gordon. We had apologies from Jan and Patricia and a number of members traveling - Doug and Judith, Betty, Gladys and Lynn Hellyer.

At our November meeting Martin Walker is giving a presentation on land snails. He is an expert and specialist collector of land snails and we already know he's a good presenter! He'll be using our new data projector so don't miss this meeting (we only have two more meetings before the end of the year).

Happy shelling
Heather

November Meeting
Our speaker for the evening shall be Martin Walker. For those of you who were lucky enough to hear Martin talk during our September meeting you will know what an intriguing, entertaining and informative speaker Martin is ... for those who didn't, here is another great opportunity not to be missed.

Martin will be talking about worldwide landsnails. The talk will include the use of the new data projector to view a lot of interesting slides, and include:
- Evolution and taxonomy of snails at higher levels.
- Large snails - minute snails.
- Sculptured and marvellously distorted snails.
- Colourful snails.
- Valuable snails.
- Chirality in snails.
- NZ snails (a fast "flypast" - this needs another whole evening really!).
- Families/countries - briefly touching down in many notable areas.
- The World Wide Web and snails.

Martin will bring in trays of landsnails and welcomes you to bring along same from your own collection.

This will be held on Tuesday, 13 November 2007 at Epsom Community Centre, 202 Gillies Avenue, Epsom. You are welcome to arrive from 7:30pm - a great chance to catch up with fellow club members, lucky door prize, shells to buy - come along!

Committee Meeting
A committee meeting shall be held prior to our next club meeting on 13 November 2007 at 6:30pm. Items on the agenda include:
- Committee for 2008.
- Shell Show 2009.
- Field trips for next year.

We are looking for more committee members for next year, so if you would like to join the team, please let Heather know.

Wanted for DNA research
Specimens of Portuguese Man of war Physalia physalia collected in good condition (not dried out) from any beach. Remove sand, dry thoroughly on tissue and put in a screw top jar in methylated spirits with location data, bring to a club meeting. Store in fridge. BEWARE handling these as the tentacles can give a nasty sting and cause severe reactions in anyone allergic to them.

A Researcher also requires specimens of nudibranchs (sea slugs). Please take photo first to confirm identification then prepare species as above.

Any queries please call Margaret on 576 8323. Thanks for your help on this one.

7th Australian National Shell Show - Brisbane 2008
Hosted by the Malacological Society of Australasia, Queensland Branch.
7th - 9th March 2008 at the Italo Australia Centre, 23 Foster Street, Newmarket 4051, Brisbane.
To receive updates about the Shell Show, email your contact details to: msaqld@powerup.com.au or post your contact details to: The Secretary, MSA Qld Branch, PO Box 15064 City East 4002, Brisbane, Australia.

Previous Newsletters