Conus (Lindaconus)  lemoni (Petuch, 1990)

Petuch descrisse il Conus lemoni come membro del gruppo del Conus spurius e concluse che il Conus lemoni poteva essere il predecessore sia del Conus spurius sia del Conus lorenzianus ⁽¹⁾.

Description ⁽²⁾

Material examined:

HOLOTYPE— Length 56 mm, dredged from 15 m depth in Griffin Brothers pit, 10 km west of US Highway 27, at Broward-Palm Beach Countyline, Florida, CM 35734;

PARATYPES— Length 49 mm,same localit>- as holotype, CM 357.35; lengths 37, 45, 48 and 68 mm, same locality as holotype, FAU 326; length 65 mm, dredged from 20 m depth in Capeletti Brothers pit #11, 7 km west of Florida Turnpike, due west of Hialeah, northeastern Dade County, Florida, Petuch collection.

Description: Shell broad, heavy, with wide shoulder;shoulder angled, with rounded edge; spire low, flattened, with early whorls projecting above later whorls; suture indented; spire whorls distincly canaliculate; bodv whorl heavily sculptured with numerous, closely-packed, large spiral cords; aperture narrow; color pattern, when preserved, composed of numerous rows of small spots, often arranged in bands, and scattered large axial flammules that often coalesce to form longitudinal stripes; spire marked with evenly-spaced crescent-shaped flammules.

Etymology: Named for Dr. Roy Lemon, Department of Geology, Florida Atlantic University.

Discussion: Conus lemoni is a new member of the Conus spurius, 1791 species complex of the Pliocene-to-Recent Caribbean and Floridian regions. Morphologically, the new Bermont species combines the shell characters of two Recent species, C. spurius atlanticus Clench,1942 and C. lorenzianus Dillwyn, 1817. In having a broad shell shape, rounded shoulder edge, and low spire, C. lemoni resembles the Carolinian C. spurius atlanticus. On the other hand, in being heavily sculptured with closely-packed spiral cords and in having a flammulated color pattern, the new Bermont cone resembles the south-western Caribbean C. lorenzianus. It is possible that C. lemoni is ancestral to both closely-related species.



In the Florida fossil record, C. lemoni is similar to several undescribed subspecies of C. spurius from the upper beds of the Bermont Formation and the overlying Fort Thompson Formation (late Pleistocene). The new Holey Land species differs from the younger C. spurius subspecies, however, in having distinctly canaliculate spire whorls and in being heavily sculptured with spiral cords.

Conus lemoni Holotype ⁽¹⁾

mm. 55,9 x 33,1

Bibliografia Consultata

• (1) - HENDRICKS, Jonathan R. ,THE GENUS CONUS (MOLLUSCA: NEOGASTROPODA) IN THE PLIO-PLEISTOCENE OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES - 2008

• (2) - Petuch (1990) “New Gastropods from the Bermont formation (Middle Pleistocene) of the Everglades Basin”