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
Apertural view of shell of Conus praecellens A. Adams, 1855,measuring 25.5 mm in height, trawled at 80 fms. off Aliguay Island, in the Philippines.
The size of an adult cone varies between 20 mm and 63 mm. The shell is pear-shaped, broad and angulated at the shoulder, contracted towards the base. The body whorl is closely sulcate throughout, the sulci striate The intervening ridges of the rounded spire are carinate, concavely elevated, The acute apex is striate. The color of the shell is whitish, obscurely doubly banded with clouds of light chestnut, and the spire is maculated with the same.[3]
This is a variable species, yet two distinct forms are recognized: (1) sowerbii form, Reeve, 1849 (a thicker, darker, and more densely spotted form with 2 protoconch whorls), and (2) aliguay form, Olivera & Biggs, 2010 (2.5 pearly white smooth protoconch whorls, more slender, higher spire, rounded shoulders, lighter colored).[4] The sowerbii form is the most common form, and until the late 1990s was the only form typically found and in private collections.
^Adams, A., 1854. Descriptions of New Species of the Genus Conus, from the Collection of Hugh Cuming, Esq.. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1854: 116 -119
^George Washington Tryon, Manual of Conchology vol. VI p. 74-75; 1884 (described as Conus cancellatus)
^Biggs, J. S., Watkins, M. Showers Corneli, P. and Olivera, B. M. (2010). Defining a clade by morphological, molecular, and toxinological criteria: distinctive forms related to Conus praecellens A. Adams, 1854 (Gastropoda: Conidae). Nautilus 124:1–19.
Sowerby, G.B. (1st) 1833. Conus. pls 24–37 in Sowerby, G.B. (2nd) (ed). The Conchological Illustrations or coloured figures of all the hitherto unfigured recent shells. London : G.B. Sowerby (2nd).
Sowerby, G.B. (2nd) 1841. The Conchological Illustrations or coloured figures of all the hitherto unfigured recent shells. London : G.B. Sowerby (2nd) 200 pls.
Reeve, L.A. 1849. Monograph of the genus Conus. pls 4–9 in Reeve, L.A. (ed). Conchologia Iconica. London : L. Reeve & Co. Vol. 1.
Sowerby, G.B. (2nd) 1857. Thesaurus Conchyliorum. Vol. 3 pp. 16–20.
Sowerby, G.B. (2nd) 1870. Descriptions of forty-eight new species of shells. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1870: 249–259 4
Brazier, J. 1877. Continuation of the Mollusca of the Chevert Expedition, with new species. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 1(4): 283–301
Habe, T. 1964. Shells of the Western Pacific in color. Osaka : Hoikusha Vol. 2 233 pp., 66 pls.
Shuto, T. 1969. Neogene gastropods from Panay Island, the Philippines. Memoires of the Faculty of Science, Kyushu University 19(1): 1–250
Salvat, B. & Rives, C. 1975. Coquillages de Polynésie. Tahiti : Papéete Les editions du pacifique, pp. 1–391.
