Bubble cone snail
| Bubble cone snail | ||||||||||||
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Conus bullatus |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Conus bullatus | ||||||||||||
| Linnaeus , 1758 |
The bubble cone snail or inflated cone snail ( Conus bullatus ) is a snail from the family of cone snails (genus Conus ), which is common in the Indo-Pacific . It feeds on fish and other snails.
features
Conus bullatus bears a medium-sized to large, moderately firm to firm snail shell , which in adult snails reaches 4.5 to 8 cm in length. The circumference of the body is egg-shaped to narrowly egg-shaped, the outline convex, but less convex or straight at the quarter at the apex and towards the base and in the middle with almost parallel sides. The case mouth is significantly wider at the base than at the shoulder. The shoulder is almost angular to angular or slightly keeled. The thread is low, its contour concave with an apex protruding from the flat thread or straight. The protoconch consists of 3 to 3.5 whorls and has a maximum diameter of around 1 cm. The first 3 to 6 whorls of the teleoconch are covered with tubercles, the later whorls are sometimes slightly keeled. The seam ramps of the Teleoconch are flat, in the later whorls they are concave with an increasing to 2 to 4 spiral grooves, which are only weakly pronounced in the last whorls. The circumference of the body has some weak, narrow, spiral grooves at the base. The basic color of the housing is white and alternating between orange and purple. The area around the body is covered with spiraling rows of orange to reddish-brown spots, lines, bars and spots that alternate irregularly with white spots, in some rows often with triangular spots. On the areas in between there is usually an incomplete to regular network of less noticeable orange to reddish-brown tent-shaped spots. Similar colored spots also form interrupted spiral stripes in the third facing away from the apex, above the middle and sometimes below the shoulder. Fine reddish-brown axially extending lines may extend from the shoulder to the base. In the form of pongo the net-like triangular spots are usually missing, but there are more conspicuous fine white axially running lines, in some individuals also orange to reddish-brown cloud patterns. The protoconch and the following two seam ramps are light red, the later seam ramps with orange to reddish-brown radial stripes and spots that often merge in the later whorls. The mouth of the case is usually beige on the edge, deeper inside yellow-orange, with the shape pongo orange-brown on the edge and deeper inside dark brown-red. The periostracum is very thin and translucent.
distribution and habitat
Conus bullatus is distributed in the Indo-Pacific from Zanzibar and Mozambique to the Marquesas and Hawaii , from the East African coast to western Thailand as a form of pongo . It occurs from the intertidal zone to a depth of 240 m, preferably below the intertidal zone up to 50 m. It lives on muddy sand, coral or mussel shill, often under dead coral skeletons outside or inside reefs.
Diet and predators
Conus bullatus' prey consists of fish and snails , which it hunts at night and harpooned with its poisonous radula teeth . However, he himself is preyed on by rays and marble cone snails ( Conus marmoreus ).
literature
- George Washington Tryon: Manual of Conchology, structural and systematic, with illustrations of the species , vol. VI; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 1884. C [onus] bullatus Linn., P. 87.
- Jerry G. Walls: Cone Shells: A Synopsis of the Living Conidae TFH Publications, Neptune (New Jersey) 1979. p. 247.
Web links
- Conus (Textilia) bullatus Linnaeus, 1758. António Monteiro, The Cone Collector, 2011.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jim McDowall: Cone predation. Hawaiian Shell News 22 (5), May 1974, p. 3.