Saccostrea cucullata (Born, 1778)

Oliver, P. Graham, Holmes, Anna, Killeen, Ian, Light, Janice & Wood, Harriet, 2004, Annotated checklist of the marine Bivalvia of Rodrigues, Journal of Natural History 38 (23), pp. 3229-3272 : 3245

Saccostrea cucullata (Born, 1778)

Habitat. Attached to rocks and forming layered beds in the intertidal.

Distribution. Although reported by Fauré (1973) we could find no living examples. In Baie du Nord and Baie Topaze long-dead layered beds can be found.

Remarks. Léguat (1708) reported eating abundant oysters from a bay adjacent to Port Mathurin, presumably Baie au Huîtres. Today living oysters are absent from all of the sheltered bays along the north coast and Baie Topaze in the west. Enquiries suggest that there is no local memory of living oyster beds and therefore that they have been dead for some 70–90 years. The cause of this

decline could be over consumption or the siltation of these bays by terrestrial erosion.

Range. Indo-Pacific [R/M/S].

Figured specimen. 72.1 mm, NMW.Z.2000.086.00043.