Festilyria duponti Weaver, 1968 VOLUTIDAE -65~85m, By traps, Zavala (aka. Quissico), Zavala District, Mozambique, 107.7mm, F+, 2000/xii The Duponts Volute is a beautiful flame-patterned Festilyria, a small genus of four handsome African volutes. A famous rarity especially in live-taken condition as vast majority are trawled dead or ex pisces (ie. taken from fish stomach), it is generally considered endemic to Mozambique (its type locality) although records from as far as South Africa exist. A carnivorous and predatory gastropod, it inhabits soft bottoms of moderately deep water around -40~150m. It is slightly variable in elongateness and also patterning but cannot be confused with any other species except perhaps F. ponsonbyi (Smith, 1901) which has a much larger protoconch and lacks dark parietal blotches. Typical shell length around 110mm, very large specimens may exceed 140mm.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 15:05:57 +0000
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