Conus striatus Linnaeus, 1758

Franklin, J. Benjamin, Subramanian, K. A., Fernando, S. Antony & Krishnan, K. S., 2009, 2250, Zootaxa 2250, pp. 1-63 : 45

49. Conus striatus Linnaeus, 1758 (Figure 50)

Conus striatus Linnaeus, 1758: 716 , no. 277 (lectotype, LSL (62 x 31 mm) ( Kohn 1963); "Hitoe").

Conus leoninus [Lightfoot], 1786: 72, no. 1620 (representation of lectotype, Knorr 1768: pl. 12, fig. 5 (62 x 31.5 mm) ( Kohn 1964); locality unknown).

Conus floridus Sowerby II, 1858: 47 , fig. 558 (two syntypes, BMNH (77 x 44; 69 x 32 mm); locality unknown).

Conus chusaki da Motta, 1978 : figs. 6, 8 (holotype, MHNG (65 x 30 mm) ( Röckel et al. 1995); "shorelines of Raya Island, Phuket ").

Conus subfloridus da Motta, 1985c: 27–28 , figs. 4a, d (holotype, MNHG (76 x 35.5 mm) ( Röckel et al. 1995); "Gulf of Mannar between India and Srilanka").

Material examined: MBMCS149 , 60 specimens, SL 52–110 mm; SW 28–56 mm .

Description. Shell medium sized to large, solid to heavy. Body whorl narrowly conoid-cylindrical. Outline convex to straight, straight below shoulder. Aperture wider at base than shoulder. Shoulder sharply angulate to carinate. Spire of low to moderate height, outline concave to slightly convex, stepped. Body whorl with closely spaced, generally fine spiral ribs on basal third, obsolete above, occasionally persisting to shoulder.

Ground colour white, with shades of pink or grey. Sometimes white, variably suffused with pale blue to purplish white. Body whorl with brown to black flecks, blotches, flames and axial streaks, usually concentrated in two interrupted to solid spiral bands, above and below centre. The bands contain solid, dashed or dotted darker spiral lines. Shells vary from almost completely white to heavily patterned.

Distribution: Thurston (1890, 1895) first reported C. striatus from Tuticorin. Subsequent records are from Rameswaram ( Sundaram 1969) and Shingle Island ( Kohn 1978). Specimens collected from Hare Island and Krusadai Island are in MGM and ANSP respectively ( Kohn 1978). Röckel et al. (1995) reported C. striatus from Rameswaram.

We collected specimens of C. striatus in the vicinity of the coral islands ( Table 6) by trawling in 6–50 m, on sand and coral rubble bottom. Diving in 5 m off Keelakarai yielded a few specimens. Specimens from Yerwadi and Keelakarai ( Table 6) were collected from the lobster cages laid overnight at 5 m, in sandy and rocky bottoms.

Remarks. Richard (1990) treated both C. s. f. subfloridus and f. floridus as conspecific with each other, but separate from C. striatus , while other authors consider C. floridus to represent only a slight variant of C. striatus ( Smith 1894) . In form floridus siphonal fasciole white to cream, with variably spaced very fine brown axial lines; form subfloridus without these lines. Aperture white to bluish in form subfloridus ; in form floridus , orange deep within. Röckel et al. (1995) provisionally considered both to be ecological variants of C. striatus from deeper subtidal habitats.

We found C. striatus and C. s. f. subfloridus sympatrically at Keelakarai and they are very similar in shell shape and sculpture (Figure 62P). The specimens collected in this study are also considered conspecific with C. striatus following Röckel et al. (1995) and Kohn (2001).