MALACOTECA Malacoteca of Species from the Tropical Ocean of Peru Authors: Manuel Gorriti Manchego y Víctor E. Falcón Huayta Introduction Gathering ambit Species collected Importance for precolonial Andean societies Acknowledgements Our malacological collection were mostly gathered, the little shells washed up on the beach by the ocean or the artisan fishermen's coves. Some species were extracted from the sands or rocks and others were acquired from   local fishermen. Insofar as possible, more than one example of a species was collected in order to later select those which for their wholeness, state of preservation and size would form part of the sample. Also, the locale of origin and characteristics of the setting were registered. All malacological species without exception were gathered, the search was accentuated for those encountered in reports from archaeological literature. Finally, the examples were washed and packed for their transport with the care their fragility requires. Figure 1: Map of the north coast with the malacological locations visited (red triangle).