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Reference	Citation	Reference available
Reeve, L. A. 1844a. Monograph of the genus Mitra. 2. Conchologia Iconica; a complete repertory of species. London. Species 1-220pp; pls 1-27 [sp. 175; pl. 25, fig. 194]	Cited Figured Original Description	request
Cernohorsky, W. O. 1976. The Mitridae of the World. Part 1. The subfamily Mitrinae. 3(17). Indo-Pacific Mollusca. 273-528pp; pls 248-466 [483; pl. 433, fig. 1]	Cited Figured Type Designation Current Name	request

The collection of Rev. Thomas Lombe Taylor was considered highly by fellow conchologists and was described by G. B. Sowerby (3rd) as ‘undoubtedly the largest private collection of shells in the world’. Both Lovell Reeve and the Sowerby’s used the collection extensively for their respective works, Conchological Iconography and Thesaurus Conchyliorum. After the death of Lombe Taylor in 1874 his widow presented 446 specimens to the British Museum, of which 142 were types figured in the above works. Later, in 1879, Sowerby sold them a further 277 type and figured shells, mainly from the Sulphur and Samarang expeditions. Sowerby continued selling the collection between 1879-1880 and the remainder in his possession was auctioned at a Stevens sale in June 1880. There was a further auction of the Lombe Taylor collection many years later in 1929; this portion of the collection had been retained by Lombe Taylor’s son and was sold after his death.

J. C. Melvill purchased many Lombe Taylor shells from Sowerby, including the then exceptionally rare Conus gloriamaris, and attended the Stevens sale where he not only bought more shells, but also the cabinets and many types of J. S. Gaskoin.

The circular label with this specimen indicates that it originated in the Lombe Taylor collection and was purchased by Melvill in 1879, presumably through Sowerby. It was then sold to J. R. le B. Tomlin in 1919 and came to the National Museum of Wales in 1955. It is labelled as a type on both this and Melvill’s other label. Reeve (1844) illustrated two figures of M. maculosa, showing a dorsal (pl. 22, fig. 175) and lateral view (pl. 25, fig. 194), the latter denoted ‘Front view of the Mitra maculosa.”. My interpretation of this is that they are different views of the same specimen from Lombe Taylor’s collection and that this specimen at NMW is the holotype. However, Cernohorsky, in a note left with this specimen and in his 1976 publication, has concluded that they are separate specimens, perhaps because he expected the holotype to be in NHM and not NMW: “The specimen fig. by him in fig. 175 is lost, not in the B.M.”. He considered the NMW specimen to be fig. 194 and went on to designate it as the lectotype.