Conus bayani Jousseaume, 1872

Franklin, J. Benjamin, Subramanian, K. A., Fernando, S. Antony & Krishnan, K. S., 2009, 2250, Zootaxa 2250, pp. 1-63 : 22-23

11. Conus bayani Jousseaume, 1872 (Figure 12)

Conus bayani Jousseame, 1872: 200–202 , pl. 18, fig. 1 (holotype, BMNH (51 x 24 mm) ( Röckel et al. 1995); "Bourbon").

Material examined: MBMCS 111 , 42 specimens, SL 43–72 mm; SW 20–36 mm .

Description. Shell medium sized to moderately large, moderately solid. Body whorl conical; outline straight to slightly sigmoid. Shoulder broad and carinate. Body whorl with distinct or weak spiral ribs and ribbons at base separated by fine grooves. Spire of moderate height, extremely concave and sharply pointed. Aperture generally narrow; outer lip straight, sharp, thin and fragile.

Ground colour white to pinkish or cream. Body whorl variously covered with deep yellowish-brown blotches and streaks; these tend to form two broad broken spiral bands above and below centre. Some specimens have traces of an additional interrupted spiral band below the shoulder. Spire whorls with scattered blotches of brown. Aperture white, with violet tone. Periostracum brown, thin and translucent.

Distribution. Melvill & Standen (1901) reported several dead specimens off Bombay (west coast). Along the east coast, Kohn (1978) reported C. bayani specimens obtained from fishing-boats off Madras and specimens deposited in AMNH. Röckel et al. (1995) reported this species from Madras and Cuddalore.

We collected specimens from northern region ( Table 6) by trawling in 5–50 m.

Remarks. Conus bayani is comparatively abundant at Periyakuppam and occurs frequently with C. amadis , C. monile and C. betulinus . The limited distribution of C. bayani to the Northern region could be due to its preference for sand bottoms. Kohn (2001) considered C. bayani as a deep-water species. However, at Periyakuppam, this species was found at depths <15 m. Specimens collected at Periyakuppam are larger (72 mm) in shell length than those reported (65 mm) by Röckel et al. (1995).