Range: Andaman Sea to Birma; Solomon Is.

Description: Moderately large to large, moderately solid to solid. Last whorl narrowly conoid-cylindrical; outline slightly convex at adapical third, almost straight below. Aperture somewhat wider at base than near shoulder; siphonal fasciole prominent. Shoulder subangulate. Spire of moderate height, outline straight to slightly concave. Larval shell of about 3.25 whorls, maximum diameter 0.7-0.8 mm. About first 4 postnuclear whorls tuberculate. Teleoconch sutural ramps flat, with 1 increasing to 5-8 spiral grooves. Last whorl with widely spaced spiral grooves on basal half; intervening ribbons rather weak, with or without a median groove; spiral sculpture less prominent in shells from Solomon Is.

Ground colour white to cream, often partially suffused with pink or tan. In Andaman Sea shells, last whorl with closely set spiral rows of brown to reddish brown axial dashes following spiral ribbons basally; lineate pattern extending on shoulder ramp. Paler brown spots and flecks forming 3 interrupted spiral bands, below shoulder, just above centre and within basal third. Solomon Island shells with rather broad, straight to wavy, continuous axial lines from shoulder ramp to base. Siphonal fasciole and notch white in shells from Solomon Islands, white to cream or pink in shells from Andaman Sea. Apex immaculate white. Late sutural ramps with brown radial lines. Aperture white to pale pink, pink in subadults.

Habitat and Habits: In 70-150 m.

Discussion: C. ranonganus may be similar to C. australis and C. armadillo. The latter species are heavier (C. australis of 80 mm: RW 0.50 g/mm; C. armadillo of 70 mm: RW 0.40 g/mm) and have broader last whorls (RD 0.44-0.56 in C. australis, 0.51-0.57 in C. armadillo). C. australis differs additionally in its more prominent and often granulose spiral sculpture of the last whorl including spiral ribs, C. armadillo in its ventricosely conical last whorl with spiral ribbons from base to shoulder that are usually granulose basally.

C. ranonganus 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.