Conus ambiguus
Drawing of the shell of Conus ambiguus from its original type description.
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Neogastropoda
Superfamily:	Conoidea
Family:	Conidae
Genus:	Conus
Species:	C. ambiguus
Binomial name
Conus ambiguus Reeve, 1844[2]
Synonyms[4]
Conus (Monteiroconus) ambiguus Reeve, 1844 accepted, alternate representation Conus griseus Kiener, 1845[3] Conus miser Boivin, 1864 Leptoconus gernanti Petuch, 1975 Monteiroconus ambiguus (Reeve, 1844)

Conus ambiguus, common name the doubtful cone,^[2] is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Conidae, the cone snails and their allies.^[4]

Like all species within the genus Conus, these snails are predatory and venomous. They are capable of "stinging" humans, therefore live ones should be handled carefully or not at all.

Conus ambiguus was originally discovered and described in both identical Latin and English language texts by Lovell Augustus Reeve in 1844.^[2]

Reeve's type description reads as follows:

The doubtful cone. Shell turbinated, smooth, ridged

towards the base, rather obsoletely engraved with very fine, festooned, longitudinal lines; white, palely stained with light brown; spire obtusely convex, slightly canaliculated, ornamented with

arched brownish spots; apex raised and pointed.

The shell of Conus ambiguus is whitish, with obscure, light brown bands, and longitudinal streaks. The spire is ornamented with arched brownish spots.^[5]

The height of the shell is 1.5 inches (38 mm).^[5]

Dimensions of the shell of type specimen is 39 x 22 mm.^[6] The type specimen is stored in Zoölogisch Museum Amsterdam (Zoological Museum of the University of Amsterdam).^[6]

The type locality was not specified by Reeve.^[2] This species occurs in the Atlantic Ocean off West Africa (Senegal, Guinea Bissau) and Angola.^[4]

This article incorporates public domain text from references.^[2][5]

• Kiener L.C. 1844-1850. Spécies général et iconographie des coquilles vivantes. Vol. 2. Famille des Enroulées. Genre Cone (Conus, Lam.), pp. 1-379, pl. 1-111 [pp. 1-48 (1846); 49-160 (1847); 161-192 (1848); 193-240 (1849); 241-[379](assumed to be 1850); plates 4,6 (1844); 2-3, 5, 7-32, 34-36, 38, 40-50 (1845); 33, 37, 39, 51-52, 54-56, 57-68, 74-77 (1846); 1, 69-73, 78-103 (1847); 104-106 (1848); 107 (1849); 108-111 (1850)]. Paris, Rousseau & J.B. Baillière
• Puillandre N., Duda T.F., Meyer C., Olivera B.M. & Bouchet P. (2015). One, four or 100 genera? A new classification of the cone snails. Journal of Molluscan Studies. 81: 1-23

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Conus ambiguus.

• Cone Shells - Knights of the Sea
• "Monteiroconus ambiguus". Gastropods.com. Retrieved 15 January 2019.