Comparison of Cypraea castanea latebrosa and Cypraea iutsui iutsui
Click on any one of these photos to see a larger picture !!
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The above 3 photos show C. castanea latebrosa (34mm) on the left and Cypraea iutsui iutsui (33mm) on the right.
South Africa has a small number of rare deep-water Cypraea shells. These are :
| cruickshanki | castanea latebrosa | broderipii |
| iutsui iutsui | castanea castanea | connelli |
| iutsui atlantica | barclayi | lisetae |
| iutsui levissima | fultoni fultoni | immelmani |
The subject of this short article is a comparison between Cypraea castanea latebrosa and Cypraea iutsui iutsui. These shells were trawled off the area between Algoa Bay and Jeffreys Bay, South Africa at a depth of approximately 100m.
The main differences between these 2 species are : the latebrosa is more compact , heavier and has a different colour pattern to the iutsui. The latebrosa has basal teeth which are more yellow. The iutsui has a lighter shell in general, with more produced terminals, easily seen in the above photos.
There is of course the possibility that these 2 species might inter-breed and form hybrids.
There follows here below a photo of the Cypraea castanea castanea, which is the shallow water form of castanea and is dived at 40m deep off Jeffeys Bay. (click to view bigger picture).
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The Cypraea castanea castanea has a much more elongate form than the castanea latebrosa. It is also much lighter in weight.
Here follows a photo of a live-taken Cypraea iutsui iutsui (photo courtesy of Dai Herbert).
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