Conus (Conospirus) brockenensis (Vella, 1954)

 

 

 

Description.

 

Shell small for the genus. Protoconch: 5 surviving whorls (the tip, probably about one whorl, broken off), conic, tall, making the spire outline very concave. 5 ½  post-nuclear whorls, staged, with well-developed peripheral keel bearing about 20 weak nodules a whorl, with 3 weak spiral threads crossing the nodules. Suture close below the keel; a weak subsutural fold; shoulder otherwise nearly horizontal. Spire including protoconch about 1/3  the height of the aperture. Body whorl: conic, sides straight posteriorly, concave anteriorly, so that the neck is somewhat attenuated; spaced, linear, spiral grooves cover the body whorl from the neck where they are strongest, nearly to the peripheral keel. Aperture long, narrow, with parallel sides.

 

Height, 18 mm.; diameter, about 7 mm. (Holotype, with tip of canal missing).

Locality: N162/604, midde Te wharau Formation, south branch of Whakatahine Stream, upper Clifdenian or Lilburnian.  

Unique holotype.

 

The protoconch is distinctive but unfortunately the upper three whorls were damaged after illustration. The sculpture is sufficiently diagnostic to establish the species.

 

 


 

 

 

Conospirus brockenensis

Holotype - Plate 26 fig. 14

mm. 18 x 7

 

 

 

 



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