> Conus kawamurai, incidentally, is actually a separate species (they do not
> intergrade), known live from only one location and so far from a single
> specimen.
>
> Does a single Freak specimen constitute a "new species" ????
 
No....
I said 'known LIVE from a single specimen'. C. kawamurai is known from
thousands of dead examples (I have about 60, and most Japanese collectors
have several). It was thought extinct until a single live-taken specimen
was reported by Dr Yoshiba (Yoshiba and Nobuhara (1997) : 'Flourish and
decline of populations of Leptoconus kawamurai Habe (Gastropoda :
Conidae)'. Chiribotan, vol. 28 (1) : 1-7, 7 figs.) I wrote about this
species in La Conchiglia some years ago, at which time there were no known
live-taken specimens. Conus aratispirata Pilsbry is probably the same
thing; the type is a fossil from Kikai island near Amami Oshima. I cannot
tell them apart, so a revision may be necessary.