California cone snail

California cone snail
	Californiconus californicus
Systematics
Subordination :	Hypsogastropoda
Partial order :	New snails (Neogastropoda)
Superfamily :	Conoidea
Family :	Cone snails (Conidae)
Genre :	Californiconus
Type :	California cone snail
Scientific name of the genus
	Californiconus
	Tucker & Tenorio , 2009
Scientific name of the species
	Californiconus californicus
	( Hinds in Reeve , 1844)

The California cone snail (previously Conus californicus , due to a new classification of 2015 Californiconus californicus in a monotypic genus Californiconus ) is a snail from the family of cone snails , which on the Pacific coast of the United States and northern Mexico lives and both polychaetes and molluscs , fish and Crayfish eats.

features

Housing of Conus californicus

The shell of the California cone snail is shortened, top-shaped, firm and has raised stripes towards the base. The thread forms a flat cone and is slightly convex. The basic color of the case is brown. Towards the apex it is whitish with individual brown spots. The surface of the brown body is covered with very fine and dense lines.

Foot, head, antennae and siphon are whitish with brown to blackish speckles.

distribution

The California cone snail occurs in the Pacific Ocean on the coast of North America from Cabo San Lucas ( Baja California , Mexico ) to San Francisco Bay ( California , United States ). It is the only species of the Conidae family that inhabits the cool waters of this zone.

habitat

California cone snails live buried in the sandy bottom of the coast, which they leave when prey is nearby.

food

California cone snails are an exception within the family in that they eat polychaetes as well as fish and mollusks . In addition, they also live on carrion . When fishing, two different strategies are used - which is also unusual for cone snails: stabbing and pulling into the mouth, as the purple cone snail does, for example , or pulling the mouth over the prey without pricking, as is otherwise the case with the map cone and the tulip cone snail observed. To kill a fish, the snail has to stab it several times. The wide range of prey is explained by the lack of competitive pressure from other conus species.

Individual evidence

↑ N. Puillandre, TF Duda, C. Meyer, BM Olivera, P. Bouchet (2015): One, four or 100 genera? A new classification of the cone snails. Journal of Molluscan Studies 81, pp. 1-23.
^ Californiconus californicus (Reeve, 1844). World Register of Marine Species , accessed December 17, 2018.
^ Hinds in Reeve , 1844, Conchologia iconica, or, Illustrations of the shells of molluscous animals (1843). Plate XLII, Species 224. (Mus. Belcher.). online at archive.org
↑ Picture with Conus californicus ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ).
^ ^A ^b ^c Julia Stewart, William F. Gilly: Piscivorous Behavior of a Temperate Cone Snail, Conus californicus . Biol. Bull. 209: 146-153. (October 2005)

Web links

Commons : California cone snail - collection of images

Conus californicus inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Posted by: Tenorio, MJ, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2014.

[1] N. Puillandre, TF Duda, C. Meyer, BM Olivera, P. Bouchet (2015): One, four or 100 genera? A new classification of the cone snails. Journal of Molluscan Studies 81, pp. 1-23.

[2] Californiconus californicus (Reeve, 1844). World Register of Marine Species , accessed December 17, 2018.

[hinds-3] Hinds in Reeve , 1844, Conchologia iconica, or, Illustrations of the shells of molluscous animals (1843). Plate XLII, Species 224. (Mus. Belcher.). online at archive.org

[4] Picture with Conus californicus ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ).

[stewart-5] A ^b ^c Julia Stewart, William F. Gilly: Piscivorous Behavior of a Temperate Cone Snail, Conus californicus . Biol. Bull. 209: 146-153. (October 2005)