Conus tessulatus Born, 1778

Franklin, J. Benjamin, Subramanian, K. A., Fernando, S. Antony & Krishnan, K. S., 2009, 2250, Zootaxa 2250, pp. 1-63 : 47

53. Conus tessulatus Born, 1778 (Figure 54)

Conus tessulatus Born, 1778: 1780 (representation of lectotype, Martini 1773: pl. 59, fig. 653 ( Kohn 1964); "Africa").

Cucullus pavimentum Röding, 1798: 41 , no. 509/33 (lectotype same as that of C. tessulatus Born (Kohn 1975) ; locality unknown).

Conus edaphus Dall, 1910: 223–224 (holotype, USNM (24.5 x 14 mm) ( Röckel et al. 1995); "off Clarion Island").

Material examined: MBMCS153 , 34 specimens, SL 32–70 mm; SW 26–45 mm .

Description. Shell medium sized to moderately large, solid to moderately heavy. Body whorl conical to broadly conical, outline convex near shoulder, straight below. Shoulder broad, subangulate to angulate. Spire low to moderate height, sharply pointed, outline slightly concave. Aperture moderately narrow and with almost uniform width, outer lip sharp and straight. Body whorl with variously spaced, weak or incised or often punctuate spiral grooves on apical third.

Ground colour white. Body whorl with spiral rows of mostly bright orange rectangular spots or bars, often alternating with white markings. These colour markings usually fuse into spiral bands in each side of the centre. Shoulder and spire with radial markings matching bars on last whorl in size and colour. Base bluish-white. Aperture white, usually with pink tones. Periostracum orange, thin and smooth.

Distribution. Bruguière (1792) first reported C. tessulatus from the Malabar coast. Dautzenberg (1937) noted a specimen from Madras (at IRSN). Röckel et al. (1995) reported a specimen from Madras and another from India without locality data. Kohn (1978) reported museum deposited specimens collected from Tuticorin (at BMNH) and Tranquebar (at ZMUC).

The specimens described herein were collected by trawling in 5–20 m from stations 4, 5 and 19 and at depths beyond 50 m from other stations ( Table 6). In Keelakarai, specimens were collected by diving in 5–8 m on sand and coral rubble bottom.

Remarks. Conus tessulatus occurs generally at stations with the large fishing harbours. No depth data from Indian waters was available from the previous reports. However, in this study, C. tessulatus was mostly obtained at depths of 5– 50 m.