N. Carolina to Venezuela, to Cuba; Brittany to Angola; Azores to Mediterranean. Predator on sessile preys (sponges) in the infralittoral and the circalittoral. Original taxon: Murex metaxa.
Synonyms: crosseanum, excavata, subcylindricum… Four rows of buttons per whorl of teleoconch, the first one being the weakest; a fifth one, smoother, appears abapically on the last whorl. – above, a subadult from 26m deep, Punta de la Mona, east of La Herradura, Granada, Andalucia. 5,8mm. The protoconch is almost always gone in older specimens.
Synonyms: crosseanum, excavata, subcylindricum… Four rows of buttons per whorl of teleoconch, the first one being the weakest; a fifth one, smoother, appears abapically on the last whorl. – above, a subadult from 26m deep, Punta de la Mona, east of La Herradura, Granada, Andalucia. 5,8mm. The protoconch is almost always gone in older specimens.
« Lives on the coast of Algeria, where it was found among the debris brought back with corals. We have received only one individual of this remarkable species, which we would perhaps have refrained from describing, if we had not found in it some well-defined characters which did not allow it to be confounded with its congeners. It distinguishes by its long, subulate shape, and by its
non-granular whorls. We dedicate it to Mr. Crosse, director of the Journal de Conchyliologie. »
Protoconches gone.
