Abstract: We describes and compares the morphological differences among species within the genus Conasprella, specifically focusing on Conasprella orbignyi (Audouin, 1831), and the species which is similar to Conasprella orbignyi, including Conasprella ichinoseana (Kuroda, 1956), Conasprella comatosa(Pilsbry, 1904), Conasprella hopwoodi (Tomlin, 1936), Conasprella longurionis (Kiener, 1847) and Conus australis Holten, 1802. We also report the new distribution locations for Conasprella hopwoodiand Conasprella longurionis in China sea. Geometric morphometric methord was applied to study the shell shape differences of these related species, and principal component analysis was conducted on the shell outlines of Conasprella orbignyi,Conasprella longurionis, Conasprella hopwoodi, and Conus australis revealing distinct differences in the outlines of these four cone shells./t/nFurther canonical variate analysis demonstrated that the shell outlines effectively discriminations between species, with Conus australis and Conasprella orbignyi showing high identification accuracy rates of 100.00% and 92.86%, respectively. By selecting spiral ribs and spiral sculptures on the last whorl as landmarks II, principal component analysis of the spiral ribs and the spiral sculptures on the last whorl for Conasprella longurionis andConasprella hopwoodi indicated the former exhibited a higher spire height, wider the last whorl, shorter base, and wider distances between the spiral ribs on the last whorl; the latter showed a lower spire height, narrower the last whorl, longer base, and narrower distances between the spiral ribs on the last whorl. The study provides a new method for distinguishing these two similar species. Further canonical variate analysis results indicated that the geometric morphology of the last whorl landmarks effectively discriminates between Conasprella longurionis and Conasprella hopwoodi, with accuracy rates of 87.50% and 88.89%, respectively.

Key words: Taxonomy, Gastropoda, Conidae, Geometric Morphometry