During a past Conchologists of America (CoA) convention in Florida, I mentioned casually to Brazilian shell dealer Marcus Coltro ("Femorale") that, as a museum professional, I opted not to have a shell collection, to avoid the perception of conflict of interest. I told him that I particularly missed not having any examples of the species I named. A few days later in the mail I received from Marcus and his brother José Coltro this great shell of the Copycat Volute (Odontocymbiola simulatrix Leal & Bouchet, 1989*), trawled at 400 m (approximately 1,313 ft) off Itajaí, Santa Catarina State, Brazil. The shell measures 195 mm (7.7 inches), but several specimens larger than 200 mm have been collected. The Copycat Volute is the largest species of mollusk I named so far!
*Leal, JH & P. Bouchet. 1989. New deep-water Volutidae from off southeastern Brazil. The Nautilus, volume 103, number 1, pages 1–12 (March 1989).
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