Abstract
A new cypraeid cowrie shell of the genus Eclogavena Iredale, 1930 is described from the northern Sulu Sea, southern Philippine Islands. The new taxon, Eclogavena dayritiana mondejarorum Petuch and Myers, new subspecies, is described as a subspecies of the widespread Sulu Sea E. dayritiana (Cate, 1963) and differs in being a more inflated and lighter-colored, pale blue and white shell. The new subspecies is also compared to the closely-related E. dani (Beals, 2002) from deep water off Palawan Island, Sulu Sea, but differs in being a less pyriform, less inflated, and much lighter colored shell. The three Sulu Sea Eclogavena species differ greatly in their ecological and bathymetric preferences: E. dayritiana lives under coral rubble in intertidal depths, and is often exposed at low tide; E. dani prefers coral rubble areas in 25-150 m depths; and E. dayritiana mondejarorum lives only inside giant sponges, growing on steep reef walls, in 30 m depth. The three closely-related taxa appear to represent a localized species radiation of Eclogavena cowries that is confined to the Sulu Sea.
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