The “Illustrious Cone” is one of the most coveted rare cones of all, and surely one of the most attractive. It is a very famous species included in S. Peter Dance’s fifty “Rare Shells” (1969), only three specimens were known then and none of them fresh.

A predatory gastropod living in rather deep water of about -100~400m, it has a wide distribution range in the Indo-Pacific ranging from Burma to Philippines to Japan to northern Australia to Solomon Islands. Most specimens seen on the market today comes from Balut and Aliguay islands of Philippines.

Average shell length around 75mm, gigantic specimens may exceed 100mm. Its colour and pattern are both quite variable and the now synonymised name T. nakayasui (Shikama & Habe, 1968) was given to a form with less patterns than usual. It is the rarest of the three famed cones characterised by tall, stepped spires; the other two being Cylinder gloriamaris and Leptoconus milneedwardsi. – Description adapted from Chong Chen

Showing the single result

Show sidebar