Volume Iii Part 3 (1/2)

_Spanish Admiral Cone._

GENERIC CHARACTER.--See Pl. 65.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

_C. testa laevi, postice gracili ferruginea, maculis albis subtrigonis, cingulisque numerosis fuscis, albo punctatis, ornata; basi nigra; spirae brevis apice acuto, anfractibus laevibus, planis._

Sh.e.l.l 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. Meth._ 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. Meth._ _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 Linnaean writers as a variety of _C. Generalis_, from which, however, it invariably differs, in being a much thicker sh.e.l.l, 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 dest.i.tute 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 sh.e.l.l, 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 sh.e.l.l 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.

Pl. 128

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CONUS Maldivus, _var._

_Spanish Admiral Cone_,_Chesnut variety._

GENERIC CHARACTER.--See Pl. 65.