Limpets
Original title: Lapas
Entry on the name 'lapas', applied in Madeira both to limpets of the genus Patella (four species, with their local names and habitats) and to scale insects (coccids) that infest cultivated plants.
Patella aspera, P. caerulea, P. lusitanica and P. vulgata are known by the general name of limpets (lapas). The first is the fishermen’s lapa branca (white limpet), the commonest of the four species; the second is the lapa preta (black limpet); the third the lapa pé de burro (donkey’s-foot limpet); and the fourth the concharéu (see that entry). The white limpet lives in the deepest water; the donkey’s-foot limpet is often found above the high-water line; and the black limpet, also called the women’s limpet, is exposed as soon as the tide goes out. These three species are common to Madeira, Porto Santo and the Desertas.
Patella vulgata, which once existed on all the islands of the archipelago, is found today only on the Savage Islands (Selvagens). Every year a large number of salted and pickled limpets of that species and of Patella aspera come from these islands.
The name of limpets is also given to various homopterous insects of the family of coccids, among which we shall mention the following:
- Diaspis Rosae, on rose bushes
- Aspidiotus Lataniae, on loquats, guavas, pear trees, vines, fennel and robinias
- Aspidiotus Hederae, on broom, rue, vines and taxónia
- Lecanium haemisphericum, on orange and custard-apple trees
- Lecanium nigrum, on custard-apple and banana plants
- Lecanium Oleae, on olive trees and esparto
- Ceroplastis tenuitectus, on fig and custard-apple trees
- Ceroplastis floridensis, on mango trees and box
- Asteroclanium variolosum, on oaks
- and Chrysomphalus dictyospermi, on palms, orange trees, lemon trees, incense trees, lawn grass (Fluggea japonica), etc.
Professor Cockerell, who travelled through the archipelago in 1920 and 1921, found thirty-odd species of coccids here. See Paoli (Guido).
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 01Place
Places mentioned · 04
1 - Desertas
Santa Cruz. Islands where three limpet species are common.
An island group near Madeira that was already separated from it at the last eruptions and shares endemic species with it. It was the main orchil-harvesting area, and Wollaston found 89 beetle species there. The islands were investigated by scientific expeditions, including the Endurance scientists in 1914.
- Porto Santo
Island where three limpet species are common.
An island of the archipelago, settled alongside Madeira and forming one of the three captaincies. It has always constituted a single parish, dedicated to Nossa Senhora da Piedade, whose church was repeatedly sacked. The Elucidário records the Moorish pirate raid of 1617, its own Misericórdia and a rainwater channel built on this drought-prone island.
- Savage Islands
Funchal · Selvagens. Only remaining home of Patella vulgata; source of salted and pickled limpets.
A small uninhabited island group, politically part of the Madeira archipelago. The Elucidário covers its geography, geology, fauna, ownership history and legends of hidden treasure, including Shackleton's treasure plans, and notes the annual hunting of shearwaters and rabbits. It is the only remaining home of the limpet Patella vulgata and was studied by naturalists such as Lowe and Garreta.
People
People mentioned · 02-
Naturalist cross-referenced for further information on Madeiran scale insects.
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Entomologist who toured the archipelago in 1920 and 1921 and found over thirty species of coccids there.