.jpg)
The Atoll of Funafuti, Ellice group : its zoology, botany, ethnology and general structure based on collections made by Charles Hedley of the Australian Museum, Sydney, N.S.W.
Cypæa moneta, Linne
Cypæa moneta, Linne.
Tryon, loc. cit., p. 177, pl. x., fig. 46; pl. xi., figs. 51-54; pl. xxiii., figs. 60 — 69; Garrett, loc. cit., pp. 106, 115.
Abundant alive under stones round the margin of the Funafuti lagoon.
Garrett records it from Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Gilberts, Carolines, Cook's, Society, Paumotus, Marquesas, and Hawaii. This species ranges along the Australian coast from Torres Straits south to Sydney.† I have seen it at Milne Bay and Port Moresby, British New Guinea. In this Museum are examples from Niue, Teste Island, Louisiades, the Solomons, Erromanga, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, and Lord Howe Island. "At Eramanga," writes Brenchley,† a shell called ' Nunpuri,' the Cyprcea moneta, passes as money, as also in New Caledonia."
† Henn—Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. (2), x., 1895, p. 520.
† Brenchley—The Cruise of the "Curacoa," 1873, p. 299.