The “Chiang’s Cone” is a bizzare species unique among cones to produce a row of sharply raised hollow spines on the shoulder. Although some other cones such as Rolaniconus polongimarumai (Kosuge, 1980) also have shoulder nodules they are not hollow spines like in T. chiangi; it is so unusual that it is currently the only species in genus Taranteconus and once a new family Taranteconidae Tucker & Tenorio, 2009 was proposed to house it.

In the most recent molecular phylogeny of Conidae (Puillandre et al., 2014) it is actually placed with very good confidence in Stephanoconus with the sister group being zonatus and imperialis (currently placed in genus Rhombiconus). It is therefore likely that the unusual spines are homologous to shoulder nodules seen in zonatus and imperialis, and these species may be moved to genus Stephanoconus in the near future should the phylogeny become relatively well accepted.

It is a locally common carnivorous and predatory gastropod feeding mainly on polychaete worms and inhabiting rather deep water around -200~400m often among coral rubbles. Its distribution is apparently disjunct, with the main range from southern Japan to the Philippines but also found in New Caledonia. Typical shell length around 20mm, very large specimens may exceed 25mm. A well-known synonym is Conus lamellatus Suzuki, 1972. – Description adapted from Chong Chen