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Common Name

"Abbreviated Cone"

Status

Regarded as a valid species.

Type Locality

"Wahoo, Sandwich Islands"

Distribution

Hawaiian Archipelago; probably Fanning Is. and Enewetak, Marshall Islands

Maximum Reported Size

58 mm

Description

Small to medium-sized, moderately solid to solid. Last whorl usually broadly conical, outline variably convex. Shoulder angulate to rounded, tuberculate. Spire of low to moderate height, outline straight to convex. Larval shell of about 4 whorls. Postnuclear spire whorls tuberculate. Teleoconch sutural ramps flat to slightly concave, with 2 increasing to 3-5 spiral grooves. Last whorl with weak to obsolete spiral ribs on basal third; in smaller specimens, followed by spaced punctate grooves up to shoulder.

Ground colour bluish grey. Last whorl with 2-3 paler spiral bands, at shoulder, below centre and often within adapical third. Very fine brown or olive axial lines usually forming spiral bands above base, centrally and below pale subshoulder band. Variably spaced spiral rows of dark brown dots extending from base to shoulder. Teleoconch sutural ramps with inconspicuous brown dots or fine axial lines between tubercles. Aperture brownish violet, with pale bands below shoulder and at centre.

Periostracum yellow, thin, and translucent.

Foot pale brown; siphon pale brown, tinged with pink (Kohn, 1959a).

Radular teeth with an adapical barb opposite a long narrow blade extending halfway down the shaft; serration occurs on the inner margin close to the apex; base with a spur (James, 1980).

Shell Morphometry

L	20-58 mm
RW	0.10-0.50 g/mm (L 18-45 mm)
RD	0.70-0.83
PMD	0.83-0.92
RSH	0.09-0.22

Habitat & Habits

Abundant on intertidal benches and common on subtidal reef platforms, where size is larger; occurring mainly to 15 m, a few specimens have been dredged in 100 m (Kohn & Weaver, 1962). C. abbreviatus inhabits mainly sand and algal turf on reef limestone (Kohn, 1959 b). C. abbreviatus feeds exclusively on polychaetes, mainly Eunicidae and Nereidae. Egg capsules 9-10 x 7-9 mm, deposited in rows and attached to the substratum by their basal plates, contain about 1,300 eggs, and about 44,000 eggs per egg mass. Egg diameter is 160-180 µm. The planktotrophic veliger has an observed pelagic period of 32 days (Perron 1981c; Perron & Kohn, 1985).

Discussion

The endemic Hawaiian species C. abbreviatus is closely related to C. miliaris, which is not known from Hawaii and differs in its smaller maximum size (ca. 40 mm), variously granulose surface and intermittent white dashes usually present within the dotted brown lines around the last whorl, and in the colour pattern of its animal. In spite of a 30-day pelagic period observed both in C. miliaris and C. abbreviatus, and occasional dispersal of C. abbreviatus to the Marshall and Line Is., no intermediates between these two species are known.

References

• Reeve, L. A., 1843. Monograph of the genus Conus. Conchologia Iconica, i: figures and descriptions of the shells of molluscs; with remarks on their affinities, synonymy, and geographical distribution, 1. Conus.
• Röckel, Korn & Kohn, 1995. Manual of the Living Conidae Vol. 1: Indo-Pacific Region.