-80m, Trawled on muddy sand bottom, Cabo Catoche, Yucatan Peninsula, Quintana Roo, Mexico, 113.9mm., 2007/i.
The handsome « Turnip Whelk » is a Busycon whelk with stunning flame patterns, endemic to the Yucatan Penninsula and Bay of Campeche in Mexico. It is a classic rarity selected by S. Peter Dance as one of his 50 « Rare Shells » (1969), the first traceable specimen appeared in the early 19th Century and was in the collection of Charles Bennet (ie. the 4th Earl of Tankerville). After the death of Tankerville this specimen became the basis for its description (ie. the holotype) by Sowerby I in 1825, but for 125 years after the description it was so rare that « money could not buy it ». Although it has become more available today it is still a rarely offered species and very uncommon in collections, especially so outside North America. It is a carnivorous and scavenging gastropod inhabiting moderately depths around -40-120m; most specimens are trawled on sandy to muddy bottoms. A little-varied species, its squat whorls and the narrowly confined anterior siphonal canal are unique among the genus Busycon and makes it unmistakable. Typical shell length around 130mm., very large specimens may exceed 180mm.