Zoological Illustrations/VolIII-Pl127
CONUS Maldivus,
Spanish Admiral Cone.
Generic Character.—See Pl. 65.
Specific Character.
- C. testâ lævi, posticè gracili ferrugineâ, maculis albis subtrigonis, cingulisque numerosis fuscis, albo punctatis, ornatâ; basi nigrâ; spiræ brevis apice acuto, anfractibus lævibus, planis.
- Shell smooth, posterior end slender, ferruginous, with angular white spots, and white bands dotted with brown; base black; spire short, tip acute, the whorls smooth and flat.
- C. Maldivus. Brug. (1789.) p. 644. Lam. Ann. v. 15. p. 264.
- C. Jaspideus. Humphreys in Mus. Cal. (1797) p. 12. No. 185.
- Conus Generalis. Var. B. Dillwyn. 539. 11.
- Lam. Syst. 7. p. 465. 50.
- Var. 1. Band in the middle narrow; upper figure. Ency. Méth. pl. 325. fig. 6.
- Var. 2. Band broader; lower figure.
- Var. 3. Band very broad, with dotted transverse lines; middle figure.
- Seba. pl. 54. fig. 11. 12. Ency. Méth. pl. 325. fig. 5. 7.
The general similarity existing between the Spanish Admiral, and two other cones, figured in this work, I have before alluded to; it has been placed by the Linnæan writers as a variety of C. Generalis, from which, however, it invariably differs, in being a much thicker shell, with a shorter spire, and the whorls without any concavity. The colour of the two species varies considerably in different individuals, but C. Maldivus is always destitute of the dark brown longitudinal stripes at the top of the body whorl, peculiar to C. Generalis; the white bands are either broken into somewhat triangular spots, or are banded with minute dots; these triangular white spots are sometimes scattered in other parts of the shell, and the white band in the middle varies much in breadth; of all the varieties I have yet seen, the middle figure is that which makes the nearest approach to C. Generalis.
The very applicable name given to this shell by Mr. Humphreys, in the Museum Calonnianum, I should have adopted, had not Bruguiere previously affixed to it that of Maldivus, as being a native of the Maldivian Islands.