Conus loroisii Kiener, 1845

Franklin, J. Benjamin, Subramanian, K. A., Fernando, S. Antony & Krishnan, K. S., 2009, 2250, Zootaxa 2250, pp. 1-63 : 37

35. Conus loroisii Kiener, 1845 (Figure 36)

Conus loroisii Kiener, 1845 : pl. 65, fig. 1 (types, Coll. Lorois and Coll. Boivin; "la mer de 1’ Inde ").

Conus (Dentroconus) agrestis Morch, 1850: 16, 31, no. 405 (paratype, ZMUC (76 x 49.5 mm) ( Coomans et al. 1979b); "Insulas Nicobaricus").

Conus huberorum da Motta, 1989: 9–11 , no. 2 (holotype, MHNG (48 x 24.5 mm) ( Röckel et al. 1995); "off the Coromandel Coast, Bay of Bengal, northward from Madras, India ").

Conus figulinus var. insignis Dautzenberg, 1937 : pl. 1, fig. 6 (type, IRSN (75 x 48 mm) ( Röckel et al. 1995); "Amboine").

Material examined: MBMCS 135 , 142 specimens, SL 30–92 mm; SW 16–56 mm .

Description. Shell medium sized to large, solid to heavy. Body whorl usually ventricosely conical; outline convex adapically, straight toward base. Shoulder subangulate to rounded. Spire low to moderate height; outline variably concave. Basal third of last whorl with variably spaced spiral grooves separating ribs and ribbons.

Ground colour grey mixed with pale blue, brown and violet in some. Colours arranged in blending spiral and axial zones. Body whorl with contrasting light narrow spiral bands at shoulder and below centre; shoulder band always present but often very narrow and inconspicuous. Solid or interrupted reddish to blackish brown lines occur infrequently on body whorl. Aperture usually white to bluish-white, sometimes reddish-brown. Periostracum brown, fairly thick, opaque with raised spiral ridges corresponding in position to the larger dark transverse lines on the shell.

Distribution. India is the type locality of C. loroisii ( Kiener 1847) . Kohn (1978) observed its occurrence from Madras to PortoNovo on the east coast. Röckel et al. (1995) reported its distribution from the north and south of Madras to Vizhagapattinam and Cuddalore, suggesting its occurrence only on the east coast of India. However, Kohn (1978) reported specimens of C. loroisii in the BMNH labeled with Bombay, west coast of India.

The specimens reported herein were collected from various stations ( Table 6) of the TamilNadu Coast by trawling in 5–50 m.

Remarks. Conus loroisii and C. figulinus appear similar, and both the species are sympatric in the northern Indian Ocean and Philippines and their specific characters either coincide or overlap as described previously. The absence of further records of C. loroisii from India was probably due to consideration of C. figulinus as conspecific ( Kohn 1978). Röckel et al. (1995) considered C. loroisii a distinct species.

The present study extended the distribution of this species from Vizhagapattinam down south to Tuticorin.

Several species of sea anemones are often found attached to the shells of C. loroisii (see Figure 62K). Kohn (1978) reported that the association of sea anemones with living C. loroisii was hitherto unknown. Conus loroisii is usually found along with C. betulinus , C. figulinus and C. amadis and also with other gastropods such as turrids, Hemifusus pugilinus Born and Babylonia spirata Linnaeus.