Martin E. Tremor, Jr. wrote:
 
> Oh I wish someone would do a work on the Muricidae similar to what Poppe and
> Goto did with the Volutidae and  Lorenz and Hubert did with the Cypridae. My
> problem this time is the Typhis.
 
Martin,
 
There are probably a lot of us who agree with you on this, except I hate to see
the Typhis broken up into a bunch of genera.  I have only two (coronatus and
cumingii) but I agree they are fascinating.  Actually any mollusk family is
fascinating if you really get into it.  A friend sent me some information
recently (along with the shells - thanks Bill) about Terebra salleana mating in
the surf that turned my perception of this family upside down.  Anyway, back to
the murex.  The COA web page http://coa.acnatsci.org/conchnet/ has a great
article on murex relationships by Emily Vokes, "One Last Look at the
Muricidae."  It won't really answer your question but does give a species count
for Typhis and the subgenera as well as Pterotyphis and the subgenus
Tripterotyphis.  If this is compared to the species list under Muricidae on
Guido Poppe's web page http://www.club.innet.be/~year0078/ you may be a bit
closer to an answer until someone does a nice and thorough review of this
family.
 
Tom Eichhorst in New Mexico, USA
 
Of course the last time I gave any help on this page I missed the price of a
shell by about $3,000!!!  I guess it is time to get a new and updated Rice's
Prices.