Cone Shells for ID

[paul monfils]

The value of scientific names is that the same name means the same thing to collectors all over the world.  I remember one time when I was a young collector, a collector in another country wrote me (yes, we used to correspond by actual MAIL without the "e" in those days!) and asked if I had any "turret shells" to trade.  I had a few Turritella species, so I sent him a list.  Turned out he wasn't interested in Turritella, but in turrids - members of the family Turridae.  Some time later another collector - in Japan I think - wrote and asked about "turret shells", so I sent him a list of my available Turridae.  Nope, he was interested in Latiaxis, not Turridae.  Also, "common name" doesn't necessarily mean "English name".  A collector from a non-English speaking country will have other common names for the same shells, in their own language. And, the only shells that have widely accepted common names are those that are well known.  There are many thousands of species that have no common name at all, so the scientific name is the only name.

The light colored shells in the picture above are similar to the pear cone, but the pear cone (Conus patricius) is lighter in color, more slender in shape, and is from West Central America.  The shells in this picture are Conus quercinus, from the Indo-Pacific region, sometimes called the "oak cone".