The deliciously patterned “Gunther’s Volute” is a celebrated classic rarity among the volutes, endemic to southern Australia. Initially only known from a handful of dead-collected specimens, a live specimen was first discovered in May 1973 off Port Lincoln, South Australia. Photographs of this specimen was published, revealing to the world the equally beautiful animal, covered in a web-like pattern of similar colouration as the shell.

A carnivorous and predatory gastropod, it inhabits sandy to muddy bottoms of shallow to moderate depths around -10~50m. Today it is still considerably rare and highly sought-after by collectors.

The attractive pattern is rather variable and the axial lines vary considerably in frequency among specimens. The two spiral bands may be solid or dotted when present, but they may also be completely absent. The form without spiral bands is rarer and was originally described as a separate species Voluta adcocki Tate, 1889; now considered a synonym but is still widely used as a form name in shell trade.

Furthermore, the shoulder nodes are also rather variable in strength. Typical shell length around 45mm, extremely large specimens may exceed 65mm. – Adapted from Chong Chen’s post