Olividae: A Collectors Guide

Olividae A Collectors Guide by Gunther H.W. Streba 2004, ConchBooks, Germany, 172 pgs 11.5" by 8.25" page size (A4), includes 62 full size color plates and 74 drawings, laminated board covers, This is a remarkable bookwhich first saw the light of day as a much smaller and less complete work in German which appeared in 2003. The work was so well received that it was expanded and published in an English edition. The family Olividae is much more popular with collectors in Europe than it is with collectors in the USA, but since the publication of this book,that is beginning to change. This title has been one of the best selling titles in my catalog since it became available and I think that there are many new collectors of this family since there is finally a good identification book for these shells. The book has very well photographedand sharply printed plates that show the shells clearly and it also has some SEM photographs of the structure of several of the shells. It is also the first book that I am aware of that covers not just the genus Oliva but also studies the related genera such as the Agaronia, Olivancillaria, Olivella as several of the less familiar genera as well. The book is well organized and is easy to use with the plates on the right hand side of the book and detailed text about the shells on the left hand page. Since many if not most of the shells in this family tend to show considerable variation within each species there are pictures of several members of a single species showing these variations