The “Glory of India” is one of the most famous cones of all and a historical classic rarity of great beauty. Known in the western world since mid 1700s, it was once known as ‘Drap d’Or Pyramidal’ (The Pyramidal Cloth-of-Gold Shell) before the days of binomial names and was formally described by Félix Pierre Jousseaume in 1894 using a specimen from Aden.

Five years later, J. C. Melvill and R. Standen, not knowing about Jousseaume’s description, described two specimens found by F. W. Townsend 200km off Bombay, India from a submarine cable under the best known synonym today: Leptoconus clytospira. Melvill wrote that its discovery was “sufficient to mark an epoch”, and with less than a dozen specimens known at the time it was included in S. Perer Dance’s 50 “Rare Shells” (1969). It remained a great rarity until late 20th Century, and although best described as uncommon nowadays it is still one of the most sought-after cones.

It is a predatory and molluscivorous gastropod inhabiting sandy to rocky bottoms of moderately deep water around -50~250m. Four regional subspecies are currently recognised, the nominal L. m. milneedwardsi from South Africa to Aden; Melvill & Standen’s name survives as L. m. clytospira ranging from Pakistan to India to Sri Lanka; L. m. lemuriensis (Wils & Delsaerdt, 1989) from Reunion and Mauritius; and L. m. eduardi (Delsaerdt, 1997) from Red Sea. Leptoconus kawamurai (Habe, 1962) from Okinawa, Japan was once considered as a subspecies but now generally accepted as a full species.

Typical shell length around 120mm, giant specimens such as the depicted specimens may occasionally exceed 170mm. Such large sizes are only attained by L. m. milneedwardsi and L. m. clytospira. It is very variable in spire height and the ‘tent’ pattern. The specific name honours Alphonse Milne-Edwards, then the director of National Museum of Natural History, Paris. – Description adapted from Chong Chen

Additional info – milneedwardsi clytospira is typically with 2 pinkish banding and found in around India to Bangladesh / Pakistan.