October Updates to The Conus Biodiversity Website(http://biology.burke.washington.edu/conus/):

             After a long period “under construction,” the “Conus Species Accounts” page is now being implemented. We have thus far posted accounts of about 50 Indo-Pacific species, taken from the Manual of the Living Conidae, Vol. 1. Indo-Pacific Region, by Röckel, Korn and Kohn (1995), and more will soon follow. The format is generally similar to that of the book, but certain aspects differ because all of the information is databased and taxonomic information is stored separately from the species accounts. For this reason, a series of tabs above each species account  access synonymies and subspecies, paleontological records, gene sequences, and the original description. We are most grateful to Conchbooks and Klaus Groh for permission to post the accounts from Röckel, Korn and Kohn (1995).
         On the “Conus Descriptions” section of the “Information” page, we have added a contemporary counterpart to the 1981 piece, “Conus descriptions aren't improving.” This modern sage advice comes from Benoīt Dayrat of the University of California, and is his abstract of a paper, “To name or not to name,” presented at the World Congress of Malacology in Perth, Western Australia, in 2004 (Molluscan Megadiversity: Sea, Land and Freshwater, p. 31).
             The Conus Biodiversity Website is based on research supported by the National Science Foundation. Currently this project emphasizes revisionary systematics of Conus in the Western Atlantic region. In this connection we are always in need of additional preserved specimens of Conus, for anatomical and molecular genetic studies. Recently collected specimens preserved in alcohol are most suitable for the latter, but age and mode of preservation is less critical for anatomical study. We would be most grateful to learn of any specimens that might be available for study, either from past collections or that might be collected in the future.

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