Book review

This book contains the description of 26 species of Gastropoda (among which two Opisthobranchia and two Pulmonata), 46 Bivalvia, and one species of Scaphopoda and Cephalopoda each. Except for four species, all are shown on the plates. There is a “General introduction to systematics and biology of marine Mollusca”, there are keys to the families, and, where necessary, to the species, while drawings clearly show the characters of the different classes. Thus, it is a useful book to identify the shells washed ashore at Wia-Wia beach, also for those who are not acquainted with the principal characters of the different groups of molluscs. The size (29 X 20.5 X 1.5 cm, stitched in thin cardboard), however, is not at all suitable for use in the field. Wia-Wia (or Wiawia) beach is differently localized in some publications and on labels accompanying specimens. The first edition of the map of Suriname on a scale of 1 : 500.000 (1961) showing this beach records “Wiawiabank” at about 54°21’W; in my first part of “The marine Mollusca of Suriname.....” (Zool. Verh. Leiden 101: pl. 4, 1969) I localized it at about 54°06'W, whereas on their labels Green and Hill identified it as lying between Krofajapassie and a point 9.5 km (in their book even 10 km) eastward, which is from about 54°36'W to 54º46'W. In the map in the publication by Green & Hill, however, Wia-Wia beach (here also called Bigisanti beach) is shown to extend from about 54°20'W to 54°46'W.