A conid species, Conus ferrugineus Hwass in Bruguière, 1792, was recorded from China for the first time based on specimens deposited in the Marine Biodiversity Collections of the South China Sea, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and on samples recently collected from voyages to the South China Sea. The specimens were collected from the Xisha Islands. The shell morphological features of this species were presented, as well as its habitat and distribution. C. ferrugineus is easily confused with its sympatric sibling species C. vitulinus Hwass in Bruguière, 1792. The most remarkable difference is its uniformly white aperture, in contrast to the violet to violet brown base of the aperture in C. vitulinus. The identification characteristics between them were also discussed and summarized in this paper. |
