Home > Invertebrates > Shells > Turbanate Shells > Vanikoro cancellata

Updated 1/23/2026

Family Vanikoridae

INDO-WEST PACIFIC / HAWAII

Vanikoro cancellata



Ewa, Oahu, 50 feet, 12mm


Ala Moana, Oahu, 12mm

  
   

LATTICE VANOKORO

Rarely found alive under dead coral at depths exceeding 50 feet.  Janetta Napp kept this in her aquarium and noted that it would emerge from hiding and crawl about, actively sensing the environment with a siphon as long as the shell width.  I suspect it feeds upon carrion as the behavior resembles that of Nassariids, or tiny mobile invertebrates.  The largest and most heavily sculpted of four species in Hawaii, live specimens coated with tufted periostracum.  Attains 1 inch, 25mm.  East Africa to Hawaii and the Tuamotus.