-80-120m, By tangle net, Davao Gulf, Mindanao, Philippines, 72.7mm.
The « St. Thomas Cone » is a very handsome classic rarity among the cones ranging from southern Philippines to Indonesia, famed for being selected as one of S. Peter Dance's 50 « Rare Shells » (1969). It was known in the western world since around the beginning of 18th Century, most specimens seemed to come from Moluccas, Indonesia. However as it is a rather deep-water shell it is not surprising that it remained very rare until late 20th Century; today it is only uncomm.on as deep-water tangle nets in the Philippines frequently bring fine specimens to surface. A carnivorous and predatory gastropod mainly feeding on polychaete worms, it inhabits a bathymetric range of around -100~250m. The sharp edged and refined form is little-varied; the pattern is quite variable although the three brown spiral bands are present regularly. Typical shell length around 70mm., extremely large specimens may exceed 95mm.