Dear Ron Noseworthy,

Thanks for your interesting information. Yes in the more northern east Asian countries, Turbo cornutus is baked for food.

I inspect my Turbo cornutus (hornless form) again, only on the shoulder cord, and only half of the last whorl has weak spines, which, for example, makes it more like Turbo argyrostomus to this degree. However, many Turbo argyrostomus may have more cords of spines and the aperture is more flared and expended.

So this form of Turbo cornutus or some even smoother forms, could be missed up with other Turbo species I listed.

Best regards,
Louis

On Wednesday, May 6, 2020, 11:07:21 PM GMT+8, Ron G. Noseworthy <[log in to unmask]> wrote:


Hi, Louis!

Living in Korea for the past 20 years, I have handled hundreds of "sora", Turbo cornutus. It is a common food species here, and often found in shell dumps outside of restaurants and "haenyo stations", which the diving women of Jeju Ialand use to clean and process their catch.

Most of the T. cornutus found here are spiny but some may be found without spines. Completely spineless ones are quite scarce; I keep them when I find them. However, many may be found with the upper portion of the body whorl spineless and a row of spines developing near the base. They appear to intergrade with the completely spiny ones. Not only subadults, but also adult specimens may be like this. I have some from Japan that are completely spineless.

Can someone tell me the difference between T. stenogyrus and T. cornutus (smooth form)? T. stenogyrus has been reported from Korea, but I have never found one.

All the best!
Ron Noseworthy

On Wednesday, May 6, 2020, 09:26:27 p.m. GMT+9, Louis Wang <[log in to unmask]> wrote:


Dear all,

Since childhood, I continuously received small Turbo specieslike Turbo intercostalis , and after ages, when I increase my knowledge, Ithink undoubtedly there's a handful of small Turbo species which are very close,I listed all the confusing species as follow:
1.Turbo intercostalis
2.Turbo cornutus (hornless form)
3.Turbo brunneus
4.Turbo cernicus
5.Turbo smithi
6.Turbo haynesi
7.Turbo sandwicensis
8.Turbo stenogyrus

Since they vary a lot in pattern and color which makes this kindof identification not reliable, I would say potiential identifications canstart from following aspects:

A. How strong the "cords"texture is there on the body. Some do have less developped "cords"than others.

B. Whether  there're multiple produced "scales"on the "cords" or not. The "scales" on "cords"for certain species are less obvious.

C.Whether there's a navel on the bottomor not. I think it will be a fixed feature for a certain species.

D. Shape of the aperture.


Any good ideas for this kind of complexis welcome!

Kind regards,

Louis


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