Lautoconus belus ( d’Orbigny, 1852 )

Kovács, Z. & Vicián, Z., 2013, Badenian (Middle Miocene) Conoidean (Neogastropoda) fauna from Letkés (N Hungary), Fragmenta Palaeontologica Hungarica 30, pp. 53-100 : 68-70

Lautoconus belus ( d’Orbigny, 1852)

( Figs 4, 53–55)

1847 Conus pyrula Brocchi – GRATELOUP, pl. 2, figs 12–13.

1852 Conus Belus – D’ORBIGNY, p. 11.

1893 Chelyconus clavatus var. dendroconoides – SACCO, p. 72, pl. 7, fig. 8.

1964 Conus belus Orbigny – HALL, p. 134, pl. 22, figs 4, 10, 15–16, 22 (cum syn.).

1999 Conus (Dendroconus) belus d’Orbigny – MUÑIZ, p. 71, figs 3/D, 9/A–B (cum syn.).

Material – 51 specimens.

Description – Shell medium-sized (SL: 19–35). Spire low to moderately high, pointed, outline convex. Spiral whorls smooth. Shoulder rounded. Body whorl conical, outline convex, slightly sigmoid, smooth with fine grooves at the anterior end. Colour pattern consisting of irregularly wider or narrower spiral stripes of small blotches. Subsutural flexure almost straight, diagonal.

Remarks – The shells of the Letkés specimens are narrower than that of the hypotype (figured by HALL 1964, pl. 22, figs 4, 10), they are closer to the type of C. clavatus dendroconoides Sacco (refigured by HALL l. c., fig. 22). The species is closely allied to L. eschewegi in morphology; however, it is a narrower form with different colour pattern.

Distribution – Italy (LM-LP), Austria, Bulgaria (MM), France (UM-LP), Spain (LP). Hungary: Letkés (MM).