A very large volute that ploughs across sand at night and eats other snails.
A very large volute. The shell is inflated and rounded with a wide aperture, a low spire that is almost sunk into the body whorl, and a thin wall for its size, cream to apricot or orange with darker bands and blotches; large individuals reach about 30 cm. The animal is bigger than the shell appears able to hold, and in life the mantle lobes spread up over the outside of it, so what crosses the sand is a smooth pale mound with the shell showing only where the mantle has not covered it.
It is a predator on other molluscs, and it hunts by ploughing forward with the front of the foot buried and a siphon raised. The trail is broad and shallow and can be followed for several metres. During daylight most animals are under the sand, showing at most a low outline and the tip of the siphon, and the sightings come at night.
Several species occur across the region, they are separated on the shape of the spire and the banding, and records from a dive normally stay at the genus. The shells are used ashore as scoops, which is where the English name comes from, and empty shells are far easier to find than living animals. Recorded from about 3 to 30 m.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.