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Murex
Venus Comb Murex, Murex pectens. From Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur, 1904.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Mollusca Class: Gastropoda Order: Sorbeoconcha Family: Muricidae Subfamily: Muricinae Genus: Murex Linnaeus, 1758
Species
See text.

Murex is a genus of tropical carnivorous marine gastropod molluscs. They almost all live in the intertidal zone, among rocks and corals.

This genus includes many showy members, their elongate shells highly sculptured with spines or fronds. The inner surfaces of their ornate shells are often brightly coloured.

Mucus from the hypobranchial gland of two species, Murex brandaris and Murex trunculus, the former names for Haustellum brandaris and Hexaplex trunculus are used to make the dye Tyrian purple (or royal purple) for use in royal garments.

Murex is an Indo-Pacific genus, as demonstrated by Ponder & Vokes (1988). The species from the West-Atlantic, formerly considered as Murex, are actually Haustellum.

• Murex hoplites
• Murex radula
• Murex acanthostephes
• Murex aduncospinosus : Short-spined Murex
• Murex africanus
• Murex alocatus
• Murex altispira : Caltrop Murex
• Murex antillarum : Antilles Murex
• Murex brevispina : Short-spined Murex
• Murex brevispina brevispina
• Murex brevispina macgillivrayi
• Murex brevispina ornamentalis
• Murex carbonnieri : Carbonnier's Murex
• Murex concinnus
• Murex coppingeri
• Murex djarianensis
• Murex djarianensis poppei
• Murex falsitribulus
• Murex forskoehlii
• Murex hystricosus
• Murex kerslakai
• Murex megapex
• Murex occa : Harrowed Murex
• Murex pecten: Venus comb murex
• Murex pecten soelae
• Murex philippinensis
• Murex pulcher : Beautiful West Indian Murex
• Murex queenslandicus
• Murex salomonensis
• Murex scolopax : False venus Comb, Woodcock Murex
• Murex serratospinosus
• Murex singaporensis
• Murex somalicus
• Murex spectabilis
• Murex spicatus
• Murex surinamensis
• Murex trapa : Rare-spined Murex
• Murex tribulus : Caltrop Murex
• Murex tribulus spicatus
• Murex tribulus tenuirostrum
• Murex tribulus tenuirostrum africanus
• Murex tribulus ternispina
• Murex troscheli : Troschel's Murex
• Murex antelmei

• Ponder, W.F. & E.H. Vokes. 1988. A revision of the Indo-West Pacific fossil and Recent species of Murex s.s. and Haustellum (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Muricidae). Records of the Australian Museum, Supplement 8. 160 pp.

• Digital Murex
• Murex User Group (Murex is also a financial software vendor)