Range: Japan and New Caledonia.

Description: Small and moderately light. Last whorl broadly conical to slightly pyriform; outline convex adapically, straight to concave toward base. Shoulder tuberculate. Spire of moderate height, outline straight. Larval shell of about 3 whorls. Postnuclear spire whorls tuberculate. Teleoconch sutural ramps with coarse axial striae; 1-2 pale spiral grooves on earlier ramps. Last whorl with pronounced spiral grooves basally, separating ribs and ribbons; ribs may be granulose and may extend to shoulder.

Ground colour white. Last whorl overlaid with rose pink, leaving a band of white blotches and a few spiral rows of reddish brown dots at centre; adjacent to central band, rose pink suffused with brown. Base and siphonal fasciole white. Larval whorls pale orange. Teleoconch sutural ramps brownish red, tuberculate marginal areas paler.

Animal "persimmon in colour" (Yoshiba and Koyama, 1984).

Habitat and Habits: In 60-70 m.

Discussion: C. hamamotoi resembles C. sazanka, C. articulatus and C. danilai. C. sazanka is larger (20-42 mm), has a narrower last whorl (RD 0.56-0.64), lower spire (RSH 0.07-0.18), faint tuberculation of the teleoconch spire whorls, and distinct spiral grooves on its sutural ramps; its last whorl pattern lacks both a continuous white band and spiral rows of reddish brown dots centrally. C. danilai is also larger (25-40 mm), heavier (RW 0.17 in similarly sized shells), has a narrower last whorl (RD 0.67- 0.72) with less pronounced sculpture, and has 2 larval whorls, the colour pattern of its last whorl includes white tents.

C. hamamotoi Range Map

This section contains verbatim reproductions of the accounts of 316 species of Conus from the Indo-Pacific region, from Manual of the Living Conidae, by Röckel, Korn and Kohn (1995). They are reproduced with the kind permission of the present publisher, Conchbooks.

All plates and figures referred to in the text are also in Röckel, Korn & Kohn, 1995. Manual of the Living Conidae Vol. 1: Indo-Pacific Region.

The range maps have been modified so that each species account has it own map, rather than one map that showed the ranges of several species in the original work. This was necessary because each species account is on a separate page on the website and not confined to the order of accounts in the book.