SEASHELLS DEFINITIVE SERIES PART II

The Islands of Bermuda rise from the Atlantic nearly 700 miles from the East Coast of the United States.  The 21 square mile land mass enjoys a sub-tropical climate and is home to the northernmost coral colonies in the world.

Bermuda, the oldest and most populous of the remaining British Colonies, with its reefs and beaches washed by the Atlantic Gulf Stream, is the habitat of thousands of marine invertebrates. This stamp series concentrates on the Class Gastropoda (Snails) and a clam of the Class Bivalvia that are native to Bermuda.

Dr. Wolfgang Sterrer reports in Marine Fauna and Flora of Bermuda, “all three subclasses of Gastropoda are represented in Bermuda waters. Of 39,000 marine gastropod species, approximately 375 have been reported (and another 50 collected but not positively identified) from Bermuda”.

Bermuda Conchologist ‘Jack’ Lightbourn collected the specimens photographed for the stamps between 1936 and 1986.

Please consult the Endangered Animals and Plants Act 1976 before collecting, exporting or importing seashells.

20c – Angular Triton Cymatium femorale (Linné, 1758),  132 mm

40c – Atlantic Trumpet Triton Charonia variegata (Lamarck, 1816)  102 mm

80c – Purple Sea Snail Janthina janthina (L., 1758), 26 mm

90c – Flame Helmet Cassis flammea (L., 1758), 70 mm

$3 – Bermuda’s Slit Shell Entemnotrochus adansonianus bermudensis Okutani & Goto, 1983, 50 mm