New YORK SHELL CLUB NOTES No. 248 January 1979 Page 7 
4877 and was sold under that name. The point 
anything as trite as Conus crocatus was Spr cetcaMie tie fast phat 
Conus crocatus had not before been found in Thailand and that this 
shell if not a new species then must be a terribly rare species 
The fact that the shells bears only a superficial resemblance to C. 
lamberti did not for a moment deter those anxious to sell the spec- 
imens they found. One very advanced collector had the ability to 
discern that the shell was in fact NOT C. lamberti (but unfortunate- 
ly not the ability to recognize that it IS CG. crocatus) and went to 
a great deal of effort to publish the description of this shell 
with the new name of "Conus thailandicus." I shall once again step 
into the role of Devil'ts Advocate and point out that the subadult 
and juvenile specimens of "Conus thailandicus" that I have been able 
to examine have had the same shape(which is considered the chief 
means of separating this shell from C. crocatus) as the slender 
specimens that we usually see. I have also seen somewhat smaller 
but nonetheless wide-shouldered specimens of Conus crocatus Lamarck 
from Samoa and from New Caledonia. The second point of difference, 
the greater or lesser degree of patterning on the body whorl, does 
not even require refutation; anyone familiar with tent-patterned 
Conus knows that they can vary tremendously. Given the above two 
points it then becomes somewhat clearer (to me, at least) that two 
possibilities exist: that what we have been seeing are juvenile 
specimens of Conus crocatus, or that Conus crocatus exists in two 
rather distinct forms. Since the initial premise Is rather unlikely 
we then must almost 
accept the second con- 
tention by default. 
If you carry nothing 
more away from this 
essay than the resolu- 
tion to look more care- 
fully at specimens pre- 
sented to you as new 
species of shells, then 
I consider the time I 
spent in writing it 
well worthwhile. If I 
have encouraged anyone 
who wishes to publish 
a new species to make 
sure that the back- 
ground research to sup- 
port the new species is 
thoroughly done, then I 
consider, that I have 
succeeded in my intent. 

(The accompanying photo- 
graphs are by Robert 
Janowsky of specimens 
from the collections of 
William Bledsoe and R. 
Berthe.) 

hi a: 
CONUS CROCATUS Lamarck, 1810 
7- 47mm specimen from New Caledonia 
2-52mm specimen from Raya Is., Thailand 

