Hello Ross,

I have sent specimens of this murex to professionals on a couple of
occasions.  One expressed the opinion that it is possibly "an ecomorph
of Haustellum dentifer Watson, 1883". Sorry, I don't buy that. More
recently, another professional did a rather thorough investigation of
this species, comparing it with material in a number of major museums,
and reported back to me that the shell does not match anything in any of
the museum collections, and museum staff agree that it is distinct, but
are of the opinion that it would be very difficult to separate from
Haustellum hirasei Dautzenberg, 1915, using conchological
characteristics alone, without supporting evidence from DNA studies.  If
anyone out there can supply alcohol-fixed tissue from this species, for
that purpose, I would be interested.

Paul M.