Cones-Deadly Mollusks of Tropical Seas

Cones-Deadly Mollusks of Tropical Seas
Catalogue of Cone shells in the State Darwin Museum
by A.R. Aliakrinsky

2005 published by State Darwin Museum, Moscow, Russia, 102 pages, page size is 21 by 30cm (about 8.25 by 11.5 inches) laminated paper cover inside a clear plastic protector, text is Russian except for shell names. about 136 species illustrated in color, picture size is about 3.5 by 5 cm, each specimen presented in ventral and dorsal views.

This is a nice looking book but it is one that is going to have limited appeal since the text is almost entirely in Russian. The names of the shells are in Latin and there is an appendix in English giving the general locality information for each of the specimens that are illustrated. The book also appears to have a nice introductory section with general information about the family but if you can not read Russian you will not be able to read it. I was able to more or less understand the subject matter that was being covered in this section by looking at the pictures and maps in the section. What I found to be the most useful section (also in an appendix) is a listing of shells belonging to the family Conidae arranged alphabetically within the geographic area that the shells come from. As with any other attempt to classify this family the list of names is subject to a lot of debate as to what "is" and what "ain't" a valid species. The specimens that are illustrated are not generally of top quality.