Kaiserkegel
| Kaiserkegel | ||||||||||||
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Housing of the Conus imperialis |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Conus imperialis | ||||||||||||
| Linnaeus , 1758 |
The Kaiser cone or Kaiser-cone shell ( Conus imperialis ) is a screw from the family of the cone snails (genus Conus ), which in Indopazifik is widespread. It feeds largely on fire bristle worms .
features
Conus imperialis carries a medium-sized to large, firm to heavy snail shell , which in adult snails reaches 4 to 11 cm in length. The circumference of the body is conical, the outline largely straight, convex on the left side, more or less convex near the base. The angled shoulder is covered with tubercles, such as the first whorls of the Teleoconch in a particularly striking way. The thread is usually low, its outline slightly concave to slightly S-shaped. The Protoconch and often the first whorls of the Teleoconch often protrude from the otherwise flat thread. The first whorls of the Teleoconch are conspicuously covered with tubercles. The seam ramps of the Teleoconch are flat to concave. On the late sewing ramps, 4 to 10 increasing spiral stripes run. The circumference of the body is covered at the base with weak to decrepit spiral ribs.
The basic color of the housing is white to bluish-gray. The color pattern on the body is extremely variable in the Indian Ocean. Especially with shells from the Pacific Ocean, the body is covered with 2 brown or olive-colored, mostly clear bands, which vary in width and are occasionally divided into axially running stripes and spots. The ligament facing away from the apex is sometimes divided into two. Spiral rows of alternating blackish-brown and white lines, varying in number and arrangement, extend from the base to the shoulder. Alternating numerous spiral rows of fine to tiny brown dots, sometimes irregularly alternating with white drawings, also extend over the entire circumference of the body. The base, the siphon fasciole and the basal part of the spindle are dark bluish-gray, occasionally underlaid with brown. In the thread, the early whorls of the Teleoconch are monochrome white to bluish-gray, the late sewing ramps with orange to almost black radial stripes and spots, whereby the elements of the pattern also vary greatly here. The case mouth is white to purple, dark purple to brown at the base, rarely up to the shoulder along the outer edge.
The thin, translucent, smooth periostracum is olive to orange.
The animal is colored in different shades of red with strongly varying patterns. The sole of the foot is pink, licked with red or brown and dark red in front. The rostrum, the antennae and the siphon are purple with reddish-brown stripes and spots as well as white spots. The rostrum and antennae can also be dark pink.
The strong radula teeth connected to a poison gland have a barb near the tip and a second large barb on the opposite side. They are serrated in a complex manner with a double or triple row of teeth ending in an internal barb just behind the second barb. There is a protruding spur at the base.
distribution and habitat
Conus imperialis is widespread throughout the Indo-Pacific , for example off Aldabra , Madagascar , Mascarene Islands , Mauritius and Australia ( Northern Territory , Queensland , Western Australia ), but is absent in the Red Sea. It lives in the intertidal zone to a depth of about 75 m, on the Philippines up to 240 m in coral reefs on substrates with coarse sand, coral limestone with or without algae and sand pockets of coral reefs or dead corals.
Development cycle
Like all cone snails, Conus imperialis is sexually separated, and the male mates with the female with his penis . The female lays capsules about 18 to 20 mm long and 12 to 13 mm wide in shallow water. In one capsule there are about 2000 to 6000 eggs, in Hawaii with a diameter of 225 µm, from which it is concluded that the Veliger larvae swim free for at least 21 days before they sink down and metamorphose into crawling snails . In Palau , the eggs are 265 µm in size, which suggests a pelagic larval period of 18 days.
nutrition
The prey of Conus imperialis largely consists of fire polychaetes (Amphinomidae) and only to a lesser extent from other Vielborstern , among others from the family Eunicidae that it with its toxic Radulazähnen stands.
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] imperialis Linn., P. 9.
- Jerry G. Walls: Cone Shells: A Synopsis of the Living Conidae TFH Publications, Neptune (New Jersey) 1979. p. 571.
- Dieter Röckel, Werner Korn, Alan J. Kohn: Manual of the Living Conidae Vol. 1: Indo-Pacific Region . Verlag Christa Hemmen, Wiesbaden 1995. 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).
