The Guam Bubble

by Richard Salisbury

I first arrived on Guam in 1972. Anxious to see what shells Guam had to offer I hurried to the only shell shop on the island. I was given a warm welcome by Tom Montgomery, then owner of the Shells of Micronesia. He handed me a shell mounted on a piece of cardboard. He told me somewhat proudly to have a look at "Guam's" shell. Then he slid a powerful magnifying lens over the shell so I could see it. Obligingly I peered through the glass, expecting to see a miniature golden cowry or Glory of the Seas. What I saw was a beautiful white bubble delicately inscribed with black wavy lines, looking much like a spider web draped over an egg.

It was later the next year that I found my first "Guam Bubble." Near Tipalao Point I was picking my way across the reef in broad daylight at a very low tide. Only a few tidal pools still had water in them. I glanced down to look at a bright little reef fish when I spotted this blob of white animal gliding along just under the water. I almost left it, thinking it was a Nudibranch. I turned away and then went back to it, poking it gengerly with my finger. The animal retracted and there was my first Guam Bubble.

Micromelo guamensis (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824) known simply as the Guam Bubble has come to be somewhat of the Islands offical shell. Although this species has a wide Indo-Pacific range, Quoy & Gaimard first studied specimens from Guam. There are at least two other shells named after the Island. One small Trochus and a Triphora but these shells are less well known even here on Guam.