Range: C. m. moluccensis: Japan and Okinawa to Philippines and Indonesia; Queensland and Melanesia (Papua New Guinea, Solomon Is., New Caledonia, Fiji); Réunion, Chagos, and Maldives; C. m. marielae: restricted to Marquesas, Tuamotu Archipelago, and Marshall Is.

Description: Medium-sized to moderately large, moderately solid. Last whorl conical to ventricosely conical or conoid-cylindrical; outline slightly convex to convex below shoulder, almost straight below; left side may be constricted near base. Columella often deflected to left at siphonal fasciole. Shoulder with 11-17 small to large pointed tubercles. Spire low in C. m. moluccensis (Pl. 48, Figs. 4-9), of low to moderate height in C. m. marielae (Pl. 48, Figs. 10, 11); slightly stepped; outline straight to concave, sometimes sigmoid. Larval shell of r3 whorls, maximum diameter 0.70-0.85 mm. TPostnuclear whorls tuberculate. Teleoconch sutural ramps flat to slightly concave, with 0-1 increasing to 3-8 spiral grooves; spiral sculpture may be obsolete on last 2 ramps. Early postnuclear whorls tuberculate, sometimes domed. In typical form of C. m. moluccensis, last whorl with granulose spiral ribs at base followed adapically by wide ribbons; ribbons weaker toward shoulder and may be obsolete within adapical third. Form stainforthii (Pl. 48, Figs. 6,7) with variably spaced granulose spiral ribs from base to shoulder; grooves between with an adapical spiral thread. In C. m. marielae, last whorl sculptured with spiral ribs or ribbons, mostly arranged in unequal pairs.

Ground colour white, often variably suffused with cream or pink. Colour pattern of last whorl variable in C. m. moluccensis: Last whorl typically with orange to red or reddish brown axial flames and blotches, often fusing into 2-3 spiral bands, on both sides of centre and below shoulder; occasionally with traces of spirally aligned dots. In form stainforthii, smaller orangish to blackish brown flecks and axial blotches forming 3 spiral bands below shoulder, above centre, and on basal third. Rows of brown dots and dashes on spiral ribs and ribbons. C. m. marielae with rows of red to orange bars, spots and dashes on ribs and ribbons of last whorl; similarly coloured axial markings located below shoulder and on both sides of centre, occasionally fusing into 2-3 spiral bands. Larval whorls and first 1-4 postnuclear sutural ramps white. In typical C. m. moluccensis, following sutural ramps sparsely maculated with radial blotches matching last whorl pattern in colour. In form stainforthii, following sutural ramps with light to dark brown radial streaks and blotches. In C. m. marielae, teleoconch spire similar to that of typical C. m. moluccensis or suffused with rose or light red brown. Aperture white.

Periostracum brown, thin, translucent, smooth

In typical C. m. moluccensis, dorsum of foot white sparsely maculated with brown; brown markings darker and densely set on anterior part, also darker and prominent near posterior end. Sole of foot white with sparse brown. Rostrum white, mottled with brown dorsally. Tentacles white. Siphon white, sparsely maculated with light to dark brown dorso-laterally (Estival, 1981, unpubl. observ.). Form stainforthii with a similar colouration but with more brown on dorsum of foot and siphon (Walls, [1979]); Richards, pers. comm., 1989). In C. m. marielae, the animal is white, speckled with blackish brown, dark colouration concentrating it anterior edge of foot and tip of siphon and covering dorsal side of rostrum (Rehder & Wilson, 1975) (Pl. 82, Third row, right).

Habitat and Habits: In 20-240 m, in or on sand bottom but also reported from coral rubble. In New Caledonia, C. m. moluccensis in sand pockets at the foot of the barrier reef front in 40-80 m. The animals are active at night and feed on molluscs (e.g. Cypraea species; Tirard, pers. comm., 1989). In East New Britain, form stainforthii on coarse sand at the foot of reef in 25-40 m, co-occurring with C. proximus below 36 m (Richards, pers. comm., 1989). C. m. marielae in 38-92 m on or in sand or sand and coral and shell rubble French Polynesia), in small caves and ledges at depths greater than 30 m on the ocean side of reef (Kwajalein, Marshall Is.; Johnson, 1992).

Discussion: C. moluccensis is most similar to C. proximus and C. sulcocastaneus. C. sulcocastaneus has less acute shoulder tubercles, a more regular, more prominent and less granulose sculpture of the last whorl, its periostracum is rather thick and opaque, and its colour pattern lacks orange to red shades. For comparison with C. proximus, see the Discussion of that specie. The original figure of C. moluccensis given by Küster shows the comparatively smooth red variant from New Caledonia or Okinawa. The name C. stainforthii applies to a heavily sculptured variant from Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Is; we consider it a form of C. m. moluccensis. In Philippines, most populations of C. m. moluccensis are somewhat intermediate in sculpture and colour pattern between the typical form and form stainforthii. All these are so similar in their conchological features that they must be regarded as conspecific. C. merletti is a junior synonym of typical C. moluccensis. Morphological differences between C. moluccensis and C. marielae do not justify separation at the species level. The character states that Rehder and Wilson attributed to C. marielae but not to C. moluccensis - scarlet rather than brown colour markings, more tubercles (12-15) on the shoulder and no granules on the spiral elevations - are all known to occur in C. m. moluccensis. Moreover specimens of C. m. marielae with granulose ribs on the last whorl are known. Because of their allopatric distribution (C. m. moluccensis: Indian Ocean and W. Pacific; C. m. marielae: French Polynesia and Marshall Is.), we favour subspecific rank for these taxa.

C. moluccensis 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.