Naquetia annandalei

Naquetia annandalei belongs to the Muricidae family, a group of marine gastropod molluscs commonly called murex or rock snails. Its fusiform shell, pale reddish-brown with faint chestnut bands, typically measures about 76.5 mm in length, though specimens up to 100 mm have been recorded. The spire consists of roughly nine and a half whorls, with three foliaceous varices running along the shell; the first two of these form hollow spines. The later whorls have a rough, scabrous texture, sculpted with fine beaded spiral striae and transverse nodulous ribs.

The sutures are impressed and coarsely crenellated where the transverse ribs end. The columella is slightly curved, white, and expanded. The outer lip is nearly continuous, reflexed, and whitish, marked by three widely spaced chestnut spots that align with the shell’s colour bands. The aperture is oval, with a notch where the outer lip meets the parietal wall.

The siphonal canal is elongated, closed, and curves forward, its margin nearly erect and extending into a thick, well-defined white callus with an indistinct nodule. This species is found in the Bay of Bengal, off Vietnam, the Philippine Islands, Taiwan, southern Japan, Queensland (Australia), and the Marquesas. Originally described as Pteronotus annandalei by Preston in 1910, the type material came from Gopalpur in the Bay of Bengal, collected at depths of 30 to 38 fathoms.