Range: Eritrea and Dahlak Archipelago.

Description: Moderately small, moderately light to moderately solid. Last whorl conical; outline slightly convex at adapical fourth, straight below; left side may be slightly concave toward base. Shoulder angulate. Spire low, outline straight or slightly concave. Teleoconch sutural ramps flat to slightly concave, with 3-6 shallow but wide spiral grooves in late whorls. Last whorl with a few variably wide spiral grooves abapically, separating ribs at base and ribbons above.

Ground colour white. Last whorl with spiral rows of widely spaced, blackish brown squarish or circular spots that are sometimes confluent. Postnuclear sutural ramps with widely spaced dark brown radial markings. Aperture white, usually yellow to orange deep within.

Periostracum pale grey, thin, translucent, and smooth.

Radular teeth with an adapical barb opposite a narrow cutting edge terminating in an outward-pointing barb; short serration of strong denticles as long as the cutting edge, ending in a strong cusp somewhat posterior to the denticles; slight central waist and distinct basal spur present (Rolán & G. Raybaudi, in press).

Habitat and Habits: In about 8-10 m.

Discussion: The Massawa form of C. erythraeensis can be distinguished from C. nigromacalatus by its smaller size, generally broader last whorl (RD 0.63-0.71), higher spire (RSH 0.13-0.22), and larger markings on the last whorl. C. jickelii differs from C. nigromaculatus in its larger size (L 35-51 mm), generally higher spire (RSH 0.09-0.16), more concave outline of spire, and more ventricose last whorl (PMD 0.83-0.89); its pattern has more closely and more evenly spaced markings, and its aperture has a white to blue area deep within and is edged by a yellow or brownish violet band.

C. nigromaculatus 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.