Royal Murex Shell, Phyllonotus regius

Royal Murex Shell, Phyllonotus regius. Shell provided by the commercial fishermen of the greater Los Cabos area, Baja California Sur, April 2010. Size: 14.1 cm (5.6 cm) x 9.8 cm (3.9 inches).

The Royal Murex, Phyllonotus regius (Swainson, 1821), is a gastropod mollusk that is a member of the Muricidae Family of Rocks. They are also known as the Regal Murex and in Mexico as busano real and caracol real. The shell is sturdy, globose in shape with a body whorl that has double rows of scaly spines, six to eight varices, a fairly low spire, a wide and closed siphonal canal and a fairly large aperture that has wide and rich brown to almost black lips. The exterior of the shell is white, but vary with some specimens have pink and brown showing though. The Royal Murex can be confused with the Pink-mouth Murex Shell, Hexaplex erythrostomus (pink inner lip). The Royal Murex Shells reach a maximum of 18.0 cm (7.1 inches) in length and 12.5 cm (4.9 inches) in height.

Royal Murexes are found on sand and muddy sand substrate in the intertidal zone to depths up to 80 feet. They range from Santa Rosalia, Baja California Sur to Peru. They have not been documented from the West Coast of Baja nothing that the shell photographed below was collected in coastal waters off the extreme southwest coast of Baja.

Synonyms are Chicoreus regius, Murex regius, and Murex tricolor.