Map of the Month Apr 10 – Cypraea Mappa, the Map Cowry

This month’s ‘map’ specimen is something completely different. It is a live map, an alive map, a living map.

The map cowry - Cypraea mappa or Leporicypraea mappa, is a gastropod mollusc with a glossy, brightly coloured shell up to 8 cm long. The map cowry was named after its shell colour and pattern of brown longitudinal lines which resemble early (Chinese) maps. It can be found over a wide band of the southern hemisphere stretching from the east Africa coast, across the Indian Ocean and westwards to the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

The cowry is collected for food, in the past the shells were trading as currency but are now very popular as paperweights, for jewellery and decoration.

How do you get one? Go to Zanzibar, East Timor or Samoa and find one, or as with most things these days, simply order them from the internet.