The “Astonishing Volute” or the “Golden Volute” is an elegant deep water volute endemic to sub-Antarctic Pacific waters around New Zealand. It is a locally not uncommon predatory gastropod living on muddy bottoms and has a rather wide bathymetric range between approximately -200~1500m.

Unlike other members of genus Provocator it has a rather thick shell and no columellar folds, and is thus often placed in its own genus Iredalina. The protoconch is usually glazed over and forms a posterior spike-like structure, which varies in length and is rarely preserved completely. Colour uniform, varying from pale to rather dark orange; a scarce white form occurs off Auckland Islands.

Adults have thickened lip and the average shell length is about 100mm, but giants exceeding 160mm (with long, well preserved spike) are known to exist. – Adapted from Chong Chen’s post

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