Description
In sand at 2~3m deep collected during dusk, in April 2018 on sand banks by sea cucumber divers.The originally described now famous Eugeniconus nobilis abbai from Solor Island. Eugeniconus nobilis victor is totally different from the abbai. The abbai lacks the dark spiral band, the colour is always a nice tan instead of the brown in victors. The flecks always cross the borders. Every specimen from Solor Island is like this. Solor is separated from Lembata by a straits. May not make such a difference for cowries but it does for the Eugeniconus victor complex. Any expert that have a sizable collection of Eugeniconus nobilis knows that throughout the range, nobilis are variable but they have a general shell morphology of the sub-species. The rarest of cause is the E. n. nobilis from Java, second is the friedae, then the abbai. E. n. victors are uncommon and are often confused with this sub-species. There is an intermediate form of nobilis from Lembata Island that has the traits of abbai but they do not have the colour. We still call them abbai and they are also rare, but they are not as beautifully tan coloured as the originally described one. There are not regularly caught because of the many miss-IDed specimens available in the market that are NOT E. c. abbai at a cheap price. Always check. Cheap usually equals to scam/fake unless they are genuine reputable dealers. This is a genuine gem specimen, would be a pride in any good cone collector’s collection.