Like all species within the genus Conus, these snails are predatory and venomous. They are capable of "stinging" humans, therefore live ones should be handled carefully or not at all.
Description
Conus ambiguus was originally discovered and described in both identical Latin and English language texts by Lovell Augustus Reeve in 1844.[2]
Reeve's type description reads as follows:
The doubtful cone. Shell turbinated, smooth, ridged
towards the base, rather obsoletely engraved with
very fine, festooned, longitudinal lines; white,
palely stained with light brown; spire obtusely
convex, slightly canaliculated, ornamented with
arched brownish spots; apex raised and pointed.
The shell of Conus ambiguus is whitish, with obscure, light brown bands, and longitudinal streaks. The spire is ornamented with arched brownish spots.[5]
^ abcdeReeve L. A. (February 1844) Conchologia iconica, or, Illustrations of the shells of molluscous animals. London, 1:
f. 244. Plate 54, figure 244.
^ abcTryon G. W. (1884). Manual of Conchology, structural and systematic, with illustrations of the species. Volume 6. Conidae, Pleurotomidae. page 13. Plate 3, figure 41-42.