The « Jean's Cowrie » is a delightfully patterned cypraeid endemic to Western Australia, Australia; ranging between the Montebello Islands in the north and around Kalbarri in the south. It can be differentiated with other similar Zoila species by the presence of columellar dentition and a base with uniform orange to brown colouration, bounded by a pale margin. Like almost all Zoila species, it has been divided into many forms/subspecies. The nominal form is moderately rare and usually trawled from around -80-150m deep, occasionally found as shallow as -40m. The form sherylae Raybaudi, 1990 (shown here) from Shark Bay area is only uncomm.on due to its shallower depth around -20~60m, and is generally smaller than the nominal form. The rare form thalamega (Lorenz, 2002) consists the southmost population around Kalbarri; it inhabits shallower depths around -20~80m and is characterised by more elongate shell with rostrate tips. The name aurata Raybaudi, 1979 refers to rare deep-water shells trawled from -150~250m around northern Western Australia, characterised by much paler and typically golden colouration. It used to be treated as a valid subspecies but genetic examination in the recent years could not differentiate it from the nominate subspecies; it is currently treated as taxon inquirendum but in reality is probably merely a deep-water variation and not worthy of a subspecific rank. It is a carnivorous grazer feeding solely on demosponges, as is typical for Zoila. Typical shell length around 75mm., very large specimens may reach 110mm. It is named after Mrs. Jean Cate, wife of the Cypraeoidea specialist Crawford N. Cate who desribed this species.

Shark Bay, Western Australia, Australia