Mark,
 
Found it!  I was about to tell you that the adversarus group was probably
solid colored like some of the white cones in the FL-Carib. waters.  I
looked through all of my fossil material, including all of Ed Petuch's
books wherein he pictures so many forms and names a number of new cone
species, thinking one of the Contraconus species might be pictured with a
little pattern. But nothing.
 
Then finally, I checked a slim little volume which had slipped to the back
of the shelf:  Bulletins of American Paleontology containing Olsson and
Petit's "Some Neogene Mollusca from Florida and the Carolinas" Vol XLVII
No. 217 1964 published by the Paleontlogical Research Isntitution in
Ithaca, New York. On plate 79 opposite page 570, Conus (Contraconus)
adversarius Conrad (no tryoni)  is pictured with pattern. I'll give you
that description on the assumption (!)  that related species are related in
color pattern.
 
The authors say,
"Specimens showing a trace of an original color pattern are relatively
rare, a figure of such a shell based on a photograph shows the details
clearly but on the shell itself is so faint as to be hardly discernable by
the unaided eye."
 
The pattern is of spiral bands of color (what color? I'd guess brown to
gold. Most cones are.) The pictured specimen is 80 mm and is relatively low
spired, so most of the height is body whorl. It shows 3 broad spiral bands
of color separated by narrower uncolored spiral bands.
 
The shoulder band is about 19mm wide on the aperture side (all that's
pictured).
 
The  width of the next band (white or uncolored) is 4 mm wide.
 
The midbody band (colored) is 9 mm wide.
 
The next uncolored band is 5 mm wide.
 
The final band is the remainder of the shell to the anterior tip. I think.
There is a possibility that after a WIDE band of color (19 mm again) there
is another narrow withe area and then a dark anterior tip. But the picture
is not clear enough to tell.
 
There are two other features to these bands of color...they seem to be
composed of spiral lines of color. The illustrated specimen is an
especially spirally ribbed specimen, clear to the shoulder, and it seems
that the color is heaviest between the spral ribs.   Also, there are narrow
 (2 mm average) axial streaks from siphon to suture of no color. These
streaks have the effect of breaking up the spiral bands into rectangles and
I think the streaks are produced by growth stoppages but that is hard to
determine due to the photo quality.
 
The spire seems to have some (indistinct) radial zigzag lines, but I can't
tell much.
 
I found I have one specimen of Conus (Contraconus) adversarius tryoni
Heilprin in my own collection from the Sarasota fossil pits  which is
spirally marked too (out of a lot of specimens in various sizes which are
not marked.)  The specimen is very smooth, as is typical of my specimens,
except for increasing sculptural spiral lines toward the base, and is
glossy, warm golden brown, and is a generally tidier and better formed
specimen than most. The markings are very faint but they resemble more than
anything else the specimen of Conus spurius,  3rd from right in the Zim
drawing on page 161 in "The Little Green Abbott" (otherwise known as
Seashells of North America), the specimen called "aureofasciatus."  I can't
detect any markings on the spire.
 
I hope you can make some sense of my description and will mail you a xerox
of the Olsson and Petit illustration if you need it.
 
Lynn Scheu
[log in to unmask]
Louisville KY, Home of the 1999 COA Convention, where brachiopods and
trilobites and corals dominate the fossil fauna, instead of cones. And NONE
of them have any pattern remaining.
 >I was planning on starting with something simple, then moving on towards the
>bullata group ...
>
>My greatest project would be to bring life to the conus (contraconus)
>adversarius tryoni!!! never seen any with pattern still left as with some of
>the others have you ? . I picked up a few pliocene conus in hillsbourgh
>county, after all these years you could still see the patterning, looked
>much like spurius. once again , the question here is DOES  anyone have even
>the slightest bit of patterning left on a conus (contraconus) adversarius
>tryoni specimen? If I were to ponder the shell, i would say that the
>structure looks "DELESSERTII " in structure, spire shape .
>If we can get a general consensis of body pattern, and color this is
>do-ible. any input would be most appreciated. thanks a bunch for the
>insiration ,
>Mark James & Peta Susan Bethke
>3001 South Ocean Dr. Suite 4-V
>Hollywood, Florida
>33019-2804
>U.S.A.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Bobbi Cordy <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Friday, April 16, 1999 4:08 AM
>Subject: Re: a real "DUH" of a question
>
>
>>Mark:
>>
>>I am doing models of the living mollusks.  AND I have done cones.  They are
>not
>>square that I know of.   I made mine long and rounded....with proboscis and
>eye
>>stalks.
>>Going to do a poisonous cone with a fish in its mouth....should be neat.
>>
>>ferreter wrote:
>>
>>> OK Cone people, on page 475 of RKK there are several illustrations of
>cone
>>> feet, the image is sort of spade shaped , does the flat end indicate that
>>> the end of the cone foot is square? reason for asking is that i want to
>>> model a few living conus and need to orient myself with the images. any
>help
>>> of suggestion would be most appreciated, Mark James & Peta Susan Bethke
>>> 3001 South Ocean Dr. Suite 4-V
>>> Hollywood, Florida
>>> 33019-2804
>>> U.S.A.
>>
>>--
>>Jim and Bobbi Cordy
>>of Merritt Island, Florida.
>>
>>Jim Specializes in Self-Collected
>>Caribbean & Florida Shells
>>
>>Bobbi in Shell Creations
>>
>
>