Conus betulinus Linnaeus, 1758

Franklin, J. Benjamin, Subramanian, K. A., Fernando, S. Antony & Krishnan, K. S., 2009, 2250, Zootaxa 2250, pp. 1-63 : 23-24

13. Conus betulinus Linnaeus, 1758 (Figure 14)

Conus betulinus Linnaeus, 1758: 715 , no. 266 (lectotype, LSL (101 x 67 mm) ( Kohn 1963); "island of Java, Indonesia ").

Cucullus medusae Röding, 1798: 43 , no. 546 (representation of lectotype, Chemnitz 1788: pl. 142, fig. 1321 (73 x 43 mm); locality unknown).

Conus betulinus var. immaculate Dautzenberg, 1906: 54 , no. 27 ("Ambodifoutra (Côte est de sainte Marie de Madagascar)").

Conus betulinus var. alternans Dautzenberg, 1937: 48 (representation of lectotype, Cuvier 1798: pl. 334, fig. 8 ( Coomans et al. 1980); locality unknown).

Conus betulinus var. tabulata Dautzenberg, 1937: 48–49 .

Conus betulinus var. plurizonata Dautzenberg, 1937: 49 .

Conus betulinus var. scripta Dautzenberg, 1937: 49 .

Conus betulinus var. paucimaculata Dautzenberg, 1937: 50 (representation of lectotype, Martini 1773: pl. 61, fig. 673); locality unknown).

Conus zulu Petuch, 1979: 19–20 , figs. 28–31 (holotype, DMNH (62 x 35 mm) ( Röckel et al. 1995); "off the mouth of the Umfolozi River, Zululand Coast, Natal, South Africa ").

Material examined: MBMCS 113 , 228 specimens, SL 15–148 mm; SW 09– 110 mm .

Description. Solid to heavy shell, body whorl broadly pyriform, outline convex. Body whorl with about a dozen rounded and closely spaced basal spiral ridges, reminder of the whorl smooth except for fine spiral and axial scratches and occasional random spiral ridges; often with heavy axial growth marks. Shoulder very broad, rounded, not distinct from spire; spire very low, nearly flat except for the first few whorls, forming a small projecting pointed cone. Aperture wide, nearly uniform; outer lip thick, sharp and straight. Small specimens are relatively narrower than adults and the basal ridges extend up to centre.

Body whorl uniformly creamy white, yellowish to deep orange, more strongly tinged at shoulder and base; covered with few to many spiral rows of small to large blackish spots, usually regularly spaced; spots may be large squares or rounded dots, sometimes with secondary rows of finer brown dots between. The spiral rows are often closely spaced anteriorly and more widely spaced posteriorly; spire and shoulder about same colour as body whorl; early spire whorls often spotted, later spire whorls with blotches. Aperture white; margins pale orange. Juveniles are commonly whitish instead of orange or yellow. Periostracum thick and yellowish brown. Foot and proboscis are dark brown to black.

Distribution. This species has been reported from Madras southward to Tuticorin ( Melvill & Standen 1898; Crichton 1941; Gravely 1942). Specimens collected from Gopalpur and Tuticorin are in the BMNH and from Tranquebar in the ZMUC ( Kohn 1978).

Conus betulinus is widely distributed from shallow inshore water to sand and sandy mud bottoms at depths of 50 m, and also in the coral reefs of the Gulf of Mannar Islands. The specimens reported herein were collected from almost all stations of the Northern and Gulf of Mannar regions ( Table 6). Conus betulinus is landed abundantly in Mandapam compared to other stations and is always found together with C. amadis , C. figulinus , C. suratensis and C. loroisii .

Remarks. We note that C. betulinus is absent from Palk Bay although it occurs both north and south of there. An unidentified species of sea anemone is invariably found attached to the shells in Palayar. A specimen presently collected at Palayar (148 mm) is larger than any earlier reported from India (90 mm) ( Röckel et al. 1995).