The largest shell of this family reaches 353 mm in height and 188 mm in width, with tall spire and worn apex; whorls marked by thick, rounded spiral ridges, fine lines intermediately and many varices, the subsutural flat ridge bearing many nodules, oval aperture bordered by inner lip bearing many plaits, and outer lip having pairs of flat reddish-brown teeth on its inner margin; operculum horny, anterior siphon slightly curved; ground colour yellowish-red, with yellowish-brown or reddish-brown fish-scale like marks, interior orange-red and glossy. Distribution: Taiwan Province and Xisha Islands (Hainan Province) of China; Tropical Indo-Western Pacific. Ecology: Live in rock or coral crevices at about several metres depth.

-20~30m, Dived, Siargao Island, Philippines, 388.2mm.
The « Triton's Trumpet » is a giant ranellid commonly found throughout the Indo-West Pacific region including Red Sea and Hawaii, and is perhaps one of the best known mollusc species of all. It is a predatory gastropod well-known for feeding on the crown-of-thorns starfish Acanthaster planci, but it actually feeds on a wide variety of echinoderms. A shallow water dweller usually found in depths less than -80m, it inhabits rocky to sandy bottoms, often of coral reefs. The shell is often used as a decorative object, and the meat is edible. In many cultures it was traditionally made into a horn, for example in Japan it was once used as war horn in the Sengoku period and in Hawaii it is the most common type of 'pu' (conch horns), blowing of which has cultural and spiritual significance and often done in ceremonial occasions. Many consider it to be overfished and it is listed as a protected species in some countries such as Philippines and Australia. In 1994 Australia proposed to include it on CITES Appendix II, but the proposal was withdrawn later due to lack of sufficient support data. Typical shell length is around 380mm., giants may sometimes exceed even 500mm.; the protoconch is always missing in adult specimens. The specimen shown has clearly defined pairs of dentitions inside the the outer lip, such specimens seem to be less common.

Shell very large, fusiform, solid, with broad flat spiral ribs, yellowish, variegated with brown. Sculpture consisting of broad flatly convex spiral ribs, about twice as broad as the interstices, which are ornamented with 1 or several smaller cinguli ; the whorls are usually slightly shouldered, and the shoulder bears 4 narrow rounded spiral ribs, slightly nodulous, the uppermost broader than the others, and margining the suture ; on the earlier whorls the spiral riblets, 3 to 4 on a whorl, are narrow, distant, and distinctly nodular. The varices descend in the same direction on alternate whorls ; they are thick and rounded on the upper whorls, sharp and foliaceous on the last two whorls. Colour whitish or yellowish, variegated with semilunar mark-ings of dark brown arranged in axial rows ; inside of aperture deep orange, with double revolving reddish-brown bands ; the columella banded with white and dark brown. Spire elevated, conic, mostly somewhat higher than the aperture. Protoconch lost in most specimens, very likely of a few smooth convex whorls. Whorls about 9-12, the last very large, depressed convex ; base rounded, concave above the short canal. Suture impressed, uneven, wavy. Aperture very large, slightly oblique, ovated, channelled above, produced below into an open, broad and short, recurved canal. Outer lip expanded, sharp, denticulated at the margin, each denticle ending a double revolving brown band. Columella vertical, arcuate. Inner lip extending beyond the columella as a free plate, forming a deep false umbilicus above and a deep oval fissure below ; the lip is spreading over the parietal wall, and is crossed throughout by numerous irregular white wrinkles or plaits.
Diameter, 18 cm. ; height, 38 cm. Angle of spire, 40°.

I have previously treated the Atlantic - Mediterranean closely related form as a geographic subspecies of C. tritonis (BEU, 1970a: 209). but it is now clear that this is a distinct species, C. variegata (Lamarck. 1816) |= Triton athmtica Bowdich. 1822; = Triton nobilis Conrad, 1849; = Tritonium seguenzae Aradas & Benoit, 1870; see CLENCH & TURNER, 1957: 194; BEU, 1970a: 209). C. variegata differs from C. tritonis in having a shorter spire, a more constricted aperture with a less flared outer lip. more strongly shouldered whorls, more prominent white ridges and larger, dark brown background areas inside the outer lip, and narrower ridges on the inner lip. and these differences show no intergradation. Also, no genetic exchange has been possible between these two taxa since the Late Pliocene uplift of (he Isthmus of Panama. MAGNE & VERGNEAU-SAUBADE (1973: fig. 2) illustrated a fossil specimen of C. variegata (under the name C. seguenzae) from the Helvetian (Late Miocene) of the Aquitaine Basin.

DISTRIBUTION. — Throughout the Indo-West Pacific province, from southern East Africa, the Red Sea, and as far south as Dongara in Western Australia (WILSON & GlLLETT, 1971: 76, WILSON, 1993: 243), to southern Queensland, Lord Howe Island and, rarely, to northern New Zealand (two apparently authentic records: POWELL, 1964: 14; 1967: 187; 1976: 151). northwards to southern Kyushu. Japan (KlRA. 1962: 56), and eastwards to Hawaii (KAY, 1979: 215) and, rarely, the tropical eastern Pacific (EMERSON, 1989; 1991: 68; Cocos I. and Galapagos Islands); and as far southeast in Polynesia as the Pitcairn Group (crayfish pots in 20-80 m. off Ducie I.. F.V. "McLachtan", coll. J. Cave. 1994; 1 NMNZ M 27)940) and Easter Island (OSORIO, 1991). The specimen cited by SMITH (1915: 84) as "allied to ... the well-known C. tritonis (Linne)", from "Terra Nova" sta. 134, near North Cape. New Zealand, in 11-20 fathoms, has been examined (BMNH 1915.4.18.243) and is a juvenile Charonia lampas.
Charonia tritonis, the very large "Tritons trumpet" (or "Toutoute" as it is popularly known in New Caledonia), needs little comment, as it is well known and occurs sporadically throughout the Indo-West Pacific province. Although it was not recorded from New Caledonia by FISCHER (I860), MELVILL & STANDEN (1895) reported that the collection they examined contained "many, in various stages of growth". This very large, hard-substrate, echinoderm predator was not well sampled by the ORSTOM shallow-water dredging programme, as only three specimens are present in the collection reported here, and two of these were collected alive during EXPEDITION MONTROUZIER. The tiny, deep pink juvenile of two teleoconch whorls (lacking the protoconch) collected in Vanuatu (MUSORSTOM 8: sta. DWI02I i has sculpture of rows of small nodules, closely resembling that of juvenile C lampas, but has been compared with other, slightly larger juvenile specimens of C. tritonis and was found to agree in all details. The two species are closely similar at a small size.