Many thanks, John, Dick, and Tom,

The shallow water species I collected in Samoa is very
close to Tom's photo of N. cumingii, even though the
ones from Samoa have a shorter spire.  It's probably
the same species.  The deep water shell is something
else, and looks very much like N. vokesae, perfectly
matching the shape and sculpture, but I haven't tried
to examine the protoconch.  The color on the Samoan
shells is pink, with pinkish-brown blotches.  Another
shell that I have from the western Pacific is a perfect
match for Tom's photo of N. triqueter, though I never
collected a compact shell like that in Samoa.  So....
either N. triqueter is a lot more variable across the
Indo-Pacific than it is in Samoa, or N. vokesae is
found far across the ocean from east Africa, or there
is another species in the genus.

Thanks again for the excellent info, and for the great link
to the photos.

Cheers,



Don

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