Many Buccinids, expecially Neptunea, have an amazing degree of variability.  Unfortunately, most of it does not seem to be environmentally-related, so many of the forma names assigned to them (and N.despecta may have the most of any Buccind!!) are therefore not terribly useful, except to collectors who wish to acquire as many different fnamed forms as possible, and dealers who naturally want to sell as many as they can!  tornata Gould, is perhaps an exeption, however, in the sense that it is
rather different from the nominative form - in extreme cases, it bears a close resemblance to N. lyrata decemcostata Say, only in more-or-less monochrome.  However, it does not appear to be environmentally determined, occuring as it does, in conjunction with other forms.//
        Buccinidae, and especially cold-water spp, are taxonomically nightmarish because of this tendancy towards extreme morphological variability - and the radula are also often of little use in species identification, being considerably more variable than in most other families, in quite a number of cold-water species - a fascinating, vastly under-collected family, in my opinion!!
-Ross M.
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