VOLUTIDAE Melo broderipii ORANGE
Philippines. Zamboanga Peninsula. 10-25 m. 2016.
Size: 271 mm.
"A GREAT QUALITY BRODERIPII WITH AN ORANGE HUE
The beautiful Melo broderipii is a fantastic large gastropod crawling from the very shallows to moderately deep water in either sand or mud bottoms or a mixture of the two.
The shallowest shell I dived was in two meter deep water. It lived in a sand patch surrounded by tall corals of about 50 square meters, but this sand patch was filled with hundreds of Spatangus sea urchins, on which I suppose this Volute was feeding. The deepest one we observed and photographed was in Gato Island: somewhere between 20 and 25 meters. As a diver one has to be lucky to spot the tip of the siphon sticking out of the sand. These animals only emerge rarely from the substrate: they have life embedded in the sea floor, as do the Harpa.
See: http://www.poppe-images.com/?t=11&family=VOLUTIDAE&fullspecies=Melo%20broderipii&catid=10
This Zamboanga specimen is very orange in color, has an absolutely stunning dark coloration outside and a beautiful shape. This type of broderipii is uncommon, even to be called rare. The size is beautiful and impressive.
A must for the connoisseur of Volutes, a great display shell." - Poppe