Common Name

"Black & White Cone"

Status

Regarded as a valid species.

Type Locality

Calheta Funda, Sal, Cape Verde

Distribution

Endemic to the Cape Verde Islands. Sal Island Baía da Mordeira to Baía do Algodoeiro

Maximum Reported Size

60 mm

Description

Shell with a straight profile; the spire is low and gently stepped, with well-marked suture and obsolete spiral grooves. The shoulder is angulated.

The shell is normally black, with white dots forming a broad spiral band on the central portion of the last whorl. The spire is black, with white dots. Brown, yellow-orange and white specimens can be found too.

Aperture is purplish, especially in fresh specimens, with a lighter central zone.

Radula: rather broad tooth, with a small but well-marked barb. Apical portion approximally one half of the total length of the tooth. Blade prominent. Serration with 16 to 33 denticles in one row in the apical portion, ending in two or three rows.

Habitat & Habits

Intertidal and subtidal; on reefs, rock platforms, sand bottoms or rock rubble, often sheltering beneath stones, rock or boulders and sand.

Discussion

C. ateralbus can be separated from C. venulatus because of its normally black last whorl and spire, with white dots, angulated shoulder and purplish aperture instead of pure white, and also from C. trochulus which has a lavender shell, straight sides, convex and purplish spire, and aperture of a darker color.

References

• Kiener, 1845. Coq. Viv. 2: pl. 108, fig 4 & 4a, (1849-50, Coq. Viv. 2: p. 313, no. 279