Conus achatinus

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Conus achatinus
Enclosure of Conus achatinus, Australia

Enclosure of Conus achatinus , Australia

Systematics
Partial order : New snails (Neogastropoda)
Superfamily : Conoidea
Family : Cone snails (Conidae)
Genre : Conus
Subgenus : Pionoconus
Type : Conus achatinus
Scientific name
Conus achatinus
Gmelin , 1791

Conus achatinus is a marine snail found in the Indian Ocean , Red Sea, and the western Pacific . Like all members of the genus Conus , it is a predator that kills its prey with poison, namely , it eats fish . Conus achatinus was first described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1791.

description

The height of the case varies and is between 35 mm and 100 mm. Slight reticulated furrows can be seen on the shell. The color of the shell is pale blue and is marbled pink to purple. An olive-brown epidermis lies over the shell.

The top of the foot is cream colored and spotted orange or brown. In the middle of the front section, a black dotted line merged in front of the edge to form a large black spotted three-lobed area. The sole of the foot is reddish-brown or spotted brown, darker in the middle. The sides of the foot are white with brown spots. The rostrum is yellow-brown with alternating brown speckles. The antennae are white and can have dark yellow tips. The sipho is white to yellow-brown, with brown and red spots on the top and white at the top.

The radula teeth, which are connected to a poison gland , have a strong barb at the tip, a large second barb opposite and a barb with a curved tip to the rear. The saw and spur at the base are missing.

Since Conus achatinus can also be poisonous to humans, living specimens should be handled with great care.

distribution and habitat

Conus achatinus is common in the Indo-Pacific from the coast of Mozambique and Tanzania to Australia , the Philippines and Melanesia , but is absent in the Red Sea.

It lives in the intertidal zone and a little below on sand under stones, from coral rubble and in crevices under corals.

Development cycle

Like all cone snails, Conus achatinus is sexually separate and the male mates with the female with his penis . The female attaches numerous egg capsules individually to rocks or mussel shells, which on the north coast of Australia are about 10 to 13 mm long and 6 to 7 mm wide in average-sized females, 17 to 19 mm long and 10 to mm wide in larger females. The size of the eggs and the length of a possible pelagic phase of the Veliger larvae or the question of whether finished snails hatch have not been investigated.

nutrition

Conus achatinus eats small fish which it harpooned with its radula teeth and immobilized with the help of the poison from its poison gland .

Systematics

There are currently three different proposals for classifying cone snails. Originally, almost all cone snails were placed in the genus Conus . This also corresponds to the wish of doctors for a stable system. The cone snails are important for human medicine because of their toxins and should be clearly identifiable. According to more recent morphological work, the family was divided into 115 genera. A system from 2014 compiled according to molecular genetic criteria divides the genus Conus into 71 sub-genera. Conus achatinus is placed in the genus or subgenus Virroconus .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ N. Puillandre, TF Duda, C. Meyer, BM Olivera & P. Bouchet: One, or four 100 genera? A new classification of the cone snails. Journal of Molluscan Studies, 81, pp. 1–23, 2015 doi : 10.1093 / mollus / eyu055

literature

  • Gmelin JF 1791. Caroli a Linnaeus. Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Lipsiae: Georg. Emanuel. Beer Vermes. Vol. 1 (Part 6) pp. 3021-3910
  • Bruguière, M. 1792. Encyclopédie Méthodique ou par ordre de matières. Histoire naturelle des vers. Paris: Panckoucke Vol. 1 i-xviii, 757 pp.
  • Röding, PF 1798. Museum Boltenianum sive Catalogus cimeliorum e tribus regnis naturae quae olim collegerat Joa. Hamburg: Trappii 199 pp.
  • Dautzenberg, P. 1937. Gastropodes marins. 3-Famille Conidae ; Results Scientifiques du Voyage aux Indes Orientales Néerlandaises de LL. AA. RR. Le Prince et la Princesse Lé Belgique. Mémoires du Musée Royal d'Histoire Naturelle de Belgique 2 (18): 284 pp, 3 pls
  • Vine, P. (1986). Red Sea Invertebrates . Immel Publishing, London. 224 pp
  • Drivas, J. & M. Jay (1988). Coquillages de La Réunion et de l'île Maurice
  • Wilson, B. 1994. Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch gastropods. Kallaroo, WA: Odyssey Publishing Vol. 2 370 pp.
  • Dieter Röckel, Werner Korn, Alan J. Kohn: Manual of the Living Conidae Vol. 1: Indo-Pacific Region . Verlag Christa Hemmen, Wiesbaden 1995. (517 pages.) The texts on the individual cone snail species of the Indo-Pacific are published on The Conus Biodiversity website with the permission of the authors (see web links).
  • Filmer RM (2001). A Catalog of Nomenclature and Taxonomy in the Living Conidae 1758-1998 . Backhuys Publishers, Leiden. 388pp.
  • Tucker JK (2009). Recent cone species database . September 4th 2009 edition
  • Tucker JK & Tenorio MJ (2009) Systematic classification of Recent and fossil conoidean gastropods . Hackenheim: Conchbooks. 296 pp.

Web links

Commons : Conus achatinus  - collection of images, videos and audio files