Shell: Base fawn with two dark brown blotches on both sides of the
aperture, dorsum covered with dark-brown rings. The eyes scattered over the
dorsum of this cylindrical cowrie vary in size and in the thickness of the
surrounding circles. Perhaps the most handsomely decorated of all the cowries,
this one has three brown bands on the fawn- colored background which extends
on the base with its two dark brown splotches on each lip and strong ribbed
teeth. Two sides of shell are almost parallel. Apex a flattened coil of about
three whorls.
Animal: Dark brown, mantle- thin and covered with branched, brown
papillae, tentacles- thick, tapered, almost pointed.
Region: Northwest and central Pacific, Indian, east Africa to American
Samoa and south Japan to north Australia.
Habitat: Shallow water, four feet and down, under coral slabs or
stones and in crevices on coral reefs.
Notes: Rings on dorsal -"argus eyes" or "pheasent's eyes" is where
the name comes from. It is said that argus, the son of zues, had many eyes,
some of which where always awake. These eyes make it an unmistakable species.
