Book review

The Living Ovulidae
by Felix Lorenz and Dirk Fehse
ConchBooks, April 2009, ISBN 978-3-939767-21-3

This is an important work covering the "allied cowries", a group of gastropods that is fairly popular with collectors, but about which relatively little is known, especially compared with their close relatives the Cypraeidae. Similar in format to Lorenz and Hubert's Guide to Worldwide Cowries, it covers all living species of the families Ovulidae, Pediculariidae and Eocypraeidae, and summarises all available knowledge of the group. It provides concise but detailed information including distribution, description of all taxa, comparisons with similar species, and taxonomic discussions. It introduces several new genera and species. There are over 200 plates showing very high-quality and clear colour photographs of all species, and a wide range of variations for each species, as well as numerous colour photographs of the living animals on their hosts. Highly recommended.

More details and availability here.

Julian Joseph