Dear Marien,
 
It is good to find another serious student of Conus taxonomy.
 
Do you have the April 30, 1970 issue of "Pacific Shell News-2" in hand?
This is where C. kintoki is named by Habe and Kosuge according to Dr.
Emerson.  I have not seen this original reference, but there is a lot of
detail about it in Dr. Emerson's paper.  In his article in the Nautilus,
Vol. 98 (2) of April 27, 1984 he carefully described the layout of the
description and discusses the confusion over authorship you recall.
 
Dr. Emerson notes that though the initials "(S.K)" appear after the
japanese text portion of the description, which is a combination of
English and Japanese.  The heading of the description, however, cites the
latinized species name as "Conus kintoki Habe et Kosuge".  In the
opintion of Dr. Emerson, this clearly established co-authorship of the
species.  I would guess from the way the description is explained that
Sadao Kosuge drafted the Japaese portion of the description and Habe
added the English part.
 
I can not see how you conclude the species was authored anonymously.  If
you have a copy of the Pacific Shell News where you saw the (S.K.), I'll
trade you for a copy of the Nautilus article.  Maybe we can compromise
and label the shell Conus kintoki Coomans & Kosuge, 1976?  Sorry, I
couldn't resist an attempt at humor.  A flying pig landed and forced me
to type this at gunpoint.
 
Bill Fenzan
Norfolk, Virginia
 
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