Range: Okinawa, Philippines, Solomon Is., Queensland (Low Is.), Tahiti, Marquesas, Samoa, and Marshall Is.

Description: Moderately large to large, solid. Last whorl usually conoid-cylindrical to ventricosely conical or conical; outline slightly convex to straight, convex below shoulder. Shoulder subangulate to rounded, sometimes indistinct. Spire of moderate height; outline slightly concave to straight, with domed early postnuclear whorls. Larval shell multispiral and projecting, maximum diameter 0.6-0.7 mm. Teleoconch sutural ramps flat, often slightly concave in late whorls, with numerous obsolete spiral striae. Last whorl with closely spaced, rather weak spiral ribs basally and spiral threads above; surface with a high gloss.

Ground colour white, suffused with red. Last whorl overlaid with brown to red brown, leaving many tiny to medium-sized, separate or overlapping tentlike to rounded ground-colour markings; tents concentrated in 3-4 axial bands from base to shoulder, and in 3 spiral bands, below shoulder, below centre, and near base. Some shells with a rather regular network of brown lines and few small brown blotches. Brown zones interspersed with dark brown spiral lines articulated with small white dots or tents. Larval whorls and first postnuclear sutural ramps pinkish violet. Following ramps matching last whorl in colour pattern. Aperture white.

Periostracum pale yellow to brownish yellow, thin, translucent, smooth.

Dorsum of foot white, radially mottled with brown, with a black pre-marginal line ending in a lateral blotch anteriorly; latero-marginal zones with larger and darker brown to black radial markings; anterior part largely brown, with a median black blotch. Sole of foot mottled white and brown. Rostrum white, mottled with brown except for the distal edge. Tentacles white; tip red, with an orange-brown axial streak. Siphon white, mottled with brown, more prominently mottled proximally, with a broad black ring about 1/2 the length from the tip; anterior end grading to bright red (Pearson, unpubl. observ.) (Pl. 84, First row, left).

Habitat and Habits: In 5-50 m; on lagoon pinnacles, reef flats and the outer slope of reefs, in sand or rubble often beneath rocks, or in caves.

Discussion: C. magnificus is very similar to C. episcopatus; for comparison, see the Discussion of the latter species. The absence of intermediates in places where both co-occur suggests separation at the species level. C. aulicus may also resemble C. magnificus but can be easily distinguished by its acute and pure white apex, and its narrower and cylindrical or ovate last whorl (RD 0.40-0.51; PMD 0.63-0.75).

C. magnificus 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.