What about this muricidae?

[claude54]

Hi boys,
an help about this shell, is it murex nigrospinosus?

<a href="http://img696.imageshack.us/i/murexnigrospinosus.jpg/" target="_blank">[img=http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/6049/murexnigrospinosus.th.jpg]</a>

Thanks
      Claude

[dave r]

Claude, nigrispinosus is now an invalid name, it is a synonym for ternispina. Yours does look like ternispina but I would need more information like size and locality. Also these spiny murex are very difficult to identify without looking at the protoconch but with other data I can make an educated guess.
Dave

[claude54]

Thanks Dave,
here you are the missing information:
Length (millimeter) 121.1
Locality Sulu Sea (Philippines)
I tried to take a picture of the shell's protoconch but I don't know if the image is good enough.

<a href="http://img685.imageshack.us/i/proto.jpg/" target="_blank">[img=http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/3538/proto.jpg]</a>

bye bye

[claude54]

Thanks Dave  <img src="images/smiley/smile.gif" alt="" border="0" />

[dave r]

The size, locality and protoconch do suggest ternispina to me. I would label it as that.
Dave