Ovatipsa chinensis (Gmelin, 1791)
Chinese cowry, 32-46mm

In the Marshalls, Ovatipsa chinensis lives primarily in two separate habitats. Although always moderately rare, they seem most common under rocks on the intertidal reef. At Kwajalein, the best place to look always used to be the reef between Kwajalein and Little Bustard, a bit toward the lagoon from a straight line between the two islands. There they lived under flat, loose rocks. In recent years, however, live branching coral has covered much of this area, hiding the rocks these cowries used to be found beneath. It has been some years since Kwajalein has had a strong tropical storm or typhoon, and the next one will likely sweep most of this living coral away. The other primary habitat is on the atoll’s leeward seaward reef, where they can sometimes be found underneath rocks that collect in potholes or depressions in the reef flat at depths of about 5-7m. Rarely they can also be found under rocks or exposed at night on the seaward reef dropoff to depths of about 25m. At night the bright orange red mantle makes this animal a striking sight. This is a fairly variable species throughout its wide Indo-Pacific range and it has been split into a number of subspecies.

The next two shots show a specimen with its egg mass.

Normally rather uncommon, four specimens were spotted on a shallow seaward reef dive on 21 August 2010. Three were together under a rock and one more was spotted on an egg mass not far away. August may be the season for breeding in the Marshalls.

Created 23 September 2008
Updated 21 September 2010

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