The “Sun Carrier” is an unforgettable xenophorid resembling closely a stylised drawing of the sun. Adults produce long radial spines in regular frequency in place of various foreign materials such as shells and rocks often seen in other members of the family; although juveniles do actually exhibit this behaviour, not all specimens retain the early attachments to adult stage.

The first publication record of it goes back to 1705 in Georg E. Rumphius’s book “The Ambonese Curiosity Cabinet”; this was pre-Linneaus days and Linneaus described it formally in 1764. Although at least one of Linneaus’ cited figures was not of this species but a turbinid, he did supposedly have a specimen which is now in the University of Uppsala and enjoys lectotype status. It was rare until the early 20th Century but today it is considered not uncommon, although the spines are fragile and good quality specimens are hard to come by.

It is a deposit feeding omnivore mainly feeding on algae and foramniferan, and lives on sandy to muddy bottoms of moderate depths around -20~200m. Its distribution range is very wide throughout the Indo-West Pacific region, ranging from South Africa to Indonesia to Taiwan. Specimens from Vietnam are famous for being large with dense and long spines.

The name S. solaris f. paucispinosa Kosuge & Nomoto, 1972 is applied mostly to population from South Africa and adjacent waters, which usually has less spines per whorl (13~15) and coarser, stronger sculpture. Typical shell length around 100mm including spines, extremely large specimens may exceed 135mm. – From Chong Chen’s post