Subgenus Kalloconus da Motta, 1991

Trovaoconus Tucker &Tenorio, 2009: 126 . — Conus venulatus Hwass in Bruguière, 1792 (Recent: West-Africa) by original designation.

TYPE SPECIES. — Conus pulcher Lightfoot, 1786 (Recent, West Africa) by original designation.

DIAGNOSIS. — Protoconch multispiral. Teleoconch squat to moderately elongate, obconic shells with broad and rounded shoulders. Spire whorls low to very low, smooth, convex. Subsutural flexure very shallow in small species - deep in larger species, moderately curved and moderately asymmetrical. Colour pattern consists mainly of spirally arranged spots and dashes in continuous spiral rows (Diagnosis followingTucker & Tenorio (2009) and Harzhauser & Landau (2016).

REMARKS

Puillandre et al. (2014) considered Kalloconus at subgenus level and found a monophyletic group. Today Kalloconus is restricted to the tropical East Atlantic (West Africa), but its fossil record demonstrates that it also had a European distribution during the Miocene in the Proto- Mediterranean and Paratethys. Conus (Kalloconus) can be distinguished from Conus (Monteiroconus), mainly by the lack of spiral cords on the whorls and by its straight, lightly concave whorls.