Range: Coral Sea and New Caledonia.
Description: Medium-sized to moderately large, moderately solid. Last whorl conical, outline convex at adapical fourth, straight below. Base of columella with a projecting plait, more pronounced in larger specimens. Shoulder angulate or subangulate, slightly outwardly curved. Spire usually of moderate height and variably stepped, outline almost straight to concave. First 5-8 postnuclear whorls tuberculate. Teleoconch sutural ramps slightly concave, with 2 increasing to 4-5 spiral grooves. Last whorl with weak spiral ribs at base.
| Shell Morphometry | ||
|---|---|---|
| L | 37-62 mm | |
| RW | -0.10 g/mm | |
| (L 37 mm) | ||
| RD | 0.59-0.62 | |
| PMD | 0.89-0.94 | |
| RSH | 0.15-0.25 | |
Ground colour pale violet, grading to white on spire. Last whorl with variably spaced dotted brown spiral lines, very sparse on central and subshoulder areas. A few brown spots and axial streaks are spirally aligned above and below centre; oblique brown axial dashes arrayed below shoulder edge, partially extending onto shoulder ramp. Teleoconch sutural ramps may have irregularly set brown blotches and stripes. Aperture purple.
Habitat and Habits: In 280-320 m.
Discussion: C. luciae is similar to C. ione and C. wallangra. For the distinction from the latter, see the DISCUSSION of that species. C. ione is similar in colour pattern but differs in its slightly pyriform last whorl, the carinate shoulders of its postnuclear whorls, prominent spiral sculpture of its last whorl, and in the absence of spiral grooves on its sutural ramps. In addition, C. ione has brown dots at the outer margins of its teleoconch sutural ramps and lacks a plait at the base of its columella.
C. luciae 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.