Conus villepinii

Conus villepinii
	Apertural and abapertural views of shell of Conus villepiniiFischer, P. & A.C. Bernardi, 1857
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Neogastropoda
Superfamily:	Conoidea
Family:	Conidae
Genus:	Conus
Species:	C. villepinii
Binomial name
	Conus villepinii; Fischer & Bernardi, 1857
Synonyms
	Conasprelloides villepinii(P. Fischer & Bernardi, 1857); Conasprelloides villepinii fosteri(Clench, 1942); Conasprelloides villepinii villepinii(P. Fischer & Bernardi, 1857); Conus (Dauciconus) villepiniiP. Fischer & Bernardi, 1857 · accepted, alternate representation; Conus (Sandericonus) sanderiWils & Moolenbeek, 1979· accepted, alternate representation; Conus fosteriClench, 1942; Conus perprotractusPetuch, 1987; Conus sanderiWils & Moolenbeek, 1979; Conus sorenseniSander, 1982; Conus villepinii fosteriClench, 1942; Conus villepinii f. sanderiWils & Moolenbeek, 1979; Conus villepinii guadalupensisBozzetti, 2017; Conus villepinii villepiniiP. Fischer & Bernardi, 1857; Dauciconus sanderi(Wils & Moolenbeek, 1979); Sandericonus hunti(Wils & Moolenbeek, 1979); Sandericonus perprotractus(Petuch, 1987); Sandericonus sanderi(Wils & Moolenbeek, 1979); Sandericonus sorenseni(Sander, 1982);

Last updated June 09, 2025

Conus villepinii, common name Villepin's cone is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Conidae, the cone snails and their allies.^[1]

Distribution

Locus typicus: Marie Galante de Guadeloupe, Lesser Antilles. The whereabouts of the original type specimen is unknown.

This variable marine species occurs from Florida to Southern Brazil and off Bermuda.

The species is better known from the Gulf of Mexico (trawler) sources. Immature specimens with purplish background colour, dredged off Barbados, may have been described as Conus hunti, Wils & Moolenbeek, 1979. The coloration of the living animal of these immature Barbados specimens of around 20 mm. in overall length is a dirty-white with flecks of black, and black fringing at the edge of the mantle and siphonal canal.

The type locality of Conus sanderi, Wils & Moolenbeek, 1979 is off St. James, west coast of Barbados West Indies, where type material was dredged at 155–180 metres depth by R.V. Martlet, operating from Bellairs Research Institute of McGill University at Holetown, Barbados. This species also known from as far south as Eastern Brazil.

Description

The maximum recorded shell length is 93 mm.^[2]

Gulf of Mexico shells, usually trawled on the continental shelf, are larger than shells from the Eastern Caribbean islands close to the type locality.

Conus hunti, Wils and Moolenbeek 1979 is likely a variant of Conus villepinii. The two type localities, Barbados and Marie Galante de Guadeloupe, are only 355 kms. apart, in similarly deep water.^[3]

Habitat

Minimum recorded depth is 25 m.^[2] Maximum recorded depth is 475 m.^[2]

Cone shells looking very similar in appearance to the shell presented as the type illustration of C.villepinii have been dredged off West coast of Barbados, Lesser Antilles at depths around 85 fms/510 feet.

References

1 2 Conus villepinii Fischer & Bernardi, 1857. Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 27 March 2010.
1 2 3 Welch J. J. (2010). "The "Island Rule" and Deep-Sea Gastropods: Re-Examining the Evidence". PLoS ONE 5(1): e8776. doi : 10.1371/journal.pone.0008776 .
↑ E. Wils & R. G. Moolenbeek: 'Two new Conus species from off Barbados', Bijdragen tot de Dierkunde, 49 (20) -1979: Pages 255-260: Publ. by the Artis Library Committee, Plantage Middenlaan 45A, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Tucker J.K. & Tenorio M.J. (2013) Illustrated catalog of the living cone shells. 517 pp. Wellington, Florida: MdM Publishing.
Puillandre N., Duda T.F., Meyer C., Olivera B.M. & Bouchet P. (2015). One, four or 100 genera? A new classification of the cone snails. Journal of Molluscan Studies. 81: 1-23

External links

The Conus Biodiversity website
Cone Shells - Knights of the Sea
"Conasprelloides villepinii". Gastropods.com. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
Vink & Sander, Systematics and Distribution of Conus sanderi s.l.; The Veliger v.25 (1982-1983)

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[WoRMS-1] 1 2 Conus villepinii Fischer & Bernardi, 1857. Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 27 March 2010.

[Welch_2010-2] 1 2 3 Welch J. J. (2010). "The "Island Rule" and Deep-Sea Gastropods: Re-Examining the Evidence". PLoS ONE 5(1): e8776. doi : 10.1371/journal.pone.0008776 .

[3] E. Wils & R. G. Moolenbeek: 'Two new Conus species from off Barbados', Bijdragen tot de Dierkunde, 49 (20) -1979: Pages 255-260: Publ. by the Artis Library Committee, Plantage Middenlaan 45A, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

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