Genus Kalloconus da Motta, 1991

Type species: Conus pulcher [Lightfoot, 1786], by original designation. Recent, West Africa.

Note. According to Tucker & Tenorio (2009), the genus Kalloconus da Motta, 1991 is characterised by large to very large and obconic shells, with a broad, rounded shoulder. The spire whorls can be smooth, striate with the sculpture disappearing on later whorls, or persisting as crowded, weak spirals. The protoconch is multispiral. The subsutural flexure is moderately deep to deep in larger specimens, and shallower in smaller specimens. The shell is ornamented with spots and dashes in spiral rows. In their molecular phylogeny, Puillandre et al. (2014a) recognised this group as being monophyletic, albeit at subgeneric level, and a sister group to Lautoconus. Both of these genera today have a West African and European distribution. However, whereas Tucker & Tenorio (2009) included only two extant species within the genus, C. pulcher [Lightfoot, 1786] and C. byssinus (Röding, 1798), the molecular phylogeny by Puillandre et al. (2014a) included six further species: C. ateralbus Kiener, 1850, C. genuanus Linnaeus, 1758, C. trochulus Reeve, 1844, C. venulatus Hwass in Bruguière, 1792, C. atlanticoselvagem Afonso & Tenorio, 2004 and Conus pseudonivifer Monteiro, Tenorio & Poppe, 2004. Although the molecular phylogenetics have led to a wider generic concept, the generic description of the shell remains unchanged.

Based on Paratethyan material here reviewed, we can add that Kalloconus species are small to very large, squat to moderately elongate. The spire is always low to very low; spire whorls are convex and usually smooth except for occasional striae on early spire whorls. The proto-Mediterranean Kalloconus betulinoides (Lamarck, 1810) is a fossil species with striate spire whorls like the extant type species Kalloconus pulcher ([Lightfoot], 1786). Spiral sculpture on last whorl very reduced. The depth of the subsutural flexures in all our fossil species is highly variable, ranging from very shallow to deep; they are usually moderately curved and moderately asymmetrical. The last whorl is of medium to wide width. As with the living species, the colour pattern in most of the fossil representatives is also composed of spiral rows of spots and dashes; only few species develop continuous spirals.