Varioconus praelongus ( Hoernes et Auinger, 1879 )

Kovács, Zoltán & Balázs, Péter, 2015, Conidae (Neogastropoda) assemblage from the Middle Miocene of the Făget Basin (Romania) in the collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, Fragmenta Palaeontologica Hungarica 32, pp. 11-48 : 33

Varioconus praelongus ( Hoernes et Auinger, 1879)

(Figs 77–78)

1879 Conus (Chelyconus) praelongus nov. form. – HOERNES & AUINGER, p. 45, pl. 1, fig. 16.

1893 Chelyconus praelongus Hoernes et Auinger – SACCO, p. 65.

1960 Conus (Chelyconus) praelongus Hoernes et Auinger – KOJUMDGIEVA, p. 213, pl. 50, fig. 7.

? 1966 Conus (Chelyconus) praelongus fusiformis Halaváts – STRAUSZ, p. 461, text-fig. 208.

1967 Conus (Chelyconus) praelongus Hoernes et Auinger – DUŞA, p. 57, pl. 2, fig. 9.

non 1985 Conus (Chelyconus) praelongus Hoernes et Auinger – ATANACKOVIĆ, p. 178, pl. 39, figs 16–17 [= Varioconus olivaeformis (Hoernes et Auinger) ]

Material: 3 specimens – Coşteiu: M 60.9863.A.; Lăpugiu: M 60.8314.B., 60.8358.F.

Description – SL: 22–30. Spire moderately high, outline slightly convex. Subapical whorls tuberculate, spiral whorls convex, striate. Shoulder rounded subangular. Body whorl conical, outline somewhat convex, smooth or ornament- ed with fine spiral ridges. Subsutural flexure asymmetrically curved, shallow.

Remarks – The type was described from Lăpugiu. V. pelagicus is a closely allied form, but differs in shell size and proportion, and in siphonal fasciole. The species shows variability of ornamentation. The shell of the type is wholly striate, but the striation of other specimens is weaker or absent. Based on new collecting works, the taxon can be recorded from Letkés. The specimen figured by ATANACKOVIĆ (1985) from Bosnia represents V. olivaeformis that differs from V. praelongus in lower spire and in ovate body whorl.

Distribution – Middle Miocene: Paratethys ( Austria, Bulgaria,? Poland, Romania).