Conus miliaris
| Conus miliaris | ||||||||||||
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Enclosure of Conus miliaris , Madagascar |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Conus miliaris | ||||||||||||
| Hwass in Bruguière , 1792 |
Conus miliaris is a sea snail from the family of cone snails that is widespreadin the Indo-Pacific . You can find them on the coast of East Africa , Hawaii and off Australia . There are two subspecies of Conus miliaris . Like all members of the genus Conus , Conus abbas is a predatory snail anduses poison to kill its victims - polychaetes , especially predatory ones of the Eunicidae family.
features
The height of the case varies and is between 12 mm and 43 mm. The shell is very smooth for sea snails. The color of the shell is yellowish, sometimes nut-colored or light gray and has dark spots.
The radula teeth connected to a poison gland have a barb on the tip and a weak cutting edge on the opposite side. They are sawn, but no longer than the cutting edge. The shaft has a waist in the middle and a spur at the base.
Since Conus miliaris can also be toxic to humans, living specimens should be handled with great care.
distribution
Conus miliaris is widespread in the Indo-Pacific and occurs here frequently in many places. It is found in shallow tropical waters in the Red Sea , in the Indian Ocean on the coast of East Africa ( Kenya , Tanzania , Mozambique ), around Aldabra , Chagos , Madagascar , Mascarene and Mauritius , in the Pacific Ocean to Australia ( New South Wales , Northern Territory , Queensland , Western Australia ), Rapa Nui and Salas y Gómez .
nutrition
Conus miliaris captured polychaete (Polychaeta) that it with its deadly poisonous modified Radulazähnen harpoons. In a large part of its range in the Indo-Pacific, where it occurs simultaneously with up to 36 other conus species, it feeds almost exclusively on three species from the Eunicidae family : Lysidice collaris , Nematonereis unicornis and Eunice afra . In the waters of Rapa Nui , where it has little competition from other cone snails, its food spectrum is significantly larger. In addition to the three species mentioned, it also prey on other Eunicidae such as Eunice cariboea and Palola siciliensis , as well as Nereididae such as Perinereis singaporensis and Onuphidae from the genus Onuphis .
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 57 sub-genera. Conus miliaris is placed in the genus Miliariconus or in the subgenus Virroconus .
Subspecies
There are two subspecies:
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] miliaris Hwass., P. 21.
- TF Duda Jr., T. Lee (2009): Ecological Release and Venom Evolution of a Predatory Marine Snail at Easter Island. PLoS ONE 4 (5), p. E5558. doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0005558
- 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).
Web links
- The Conus Biodiversity Website: Conus miliaris Hwass in Bruguière, 1792.
- Cone Shells - Knights of the Sea
- Gastropods.com: Miliariconus miliaris miliaris
- Gastropods.com: Miliariconus miliaris pascuensis
Individual evidence
- ↑ 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, 2015 doi : 10.1093 / mollus / eyu055 , pp. 1–23.