Nebularia hayashii: The « Hayashi's Mitre » is a famous and much sought-after Western Pacific mitrid ranging from Japan to the Philippines. When initially discovered in Japan, it was thought to represent a recently extinct species as no live specimen was found. Many years later however, live specimens started to surface. In fact it is named after Mr. Shoichiro Hayashi, the first person to collect a fully mature specimen of this species alive and provided it for description. It used to be rare to very rare, and was made famous by inclusion in the classic book « Rare Shells of Taiwan » (1979) by T.C. Lan. Majority of specimens do actually come from Taiwan, although recently more specimens are surfacing from the Philippines. It has become more readily available in the recent years and is now perhaps best described as uncomm.on or moderately rare. A carnivorous and predatory gastropod feeding probably on sipunculids like most mitrids, it lives on soft bottoms of rather deep water around -100~300m. Typical shell length around 50mm., very large specimens may exceed 65mm. Though used to be placed in the genus Scabricola it is now generally accepted to be a member of Mitra and included in the subgenus Nebularia, considered by some to merit a full genus status.

Nebularia hayashii: Shell to 57.0 mm in length, cylindrically-elongate, body whorl long, teleoconch of 7-8 weakly convex whorls, protoconch missing in specimens examined. Sculptured with punctate spiral grooves which give rise to low, narrow, flat spiral cords, cords number 5-7 on the penultimate and 25-27 on the body whorl, sutures with close axial striae; longitudinal sculpture of numerous fine axial striae which are more prominent anterior to sutures, siphonal fasciole with 7-8 very low, irregular oblique cords. Aperture longer than the spire, smooth within, outer lip thickened, simple and regularly convex, columella only narrowly calloused and with 4-5 oblique folds, siphonal notch slightly recurved towards aperture. Flesh to pale yellow or cream, sutures with brown spots and some short white streaks, ornamented with rows of small brown spots in grooves, some specimens with 2 obscure brown bands on body whorl, aperture white, outer lip spotted with brown.

Nebularia hayashii: Finding Place: Saga, Saga Prefecture, Japan.
Range: From the Philippine Islands to Japan.