Ghost cone
| Ghost cone | ||||||||||||
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Housing from Conus spectrum |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Conus spectrum | ||||||||||||
| Linnaeus , 1758 |
The ghost cone or the mirror cone snail ( Conus spectrum ) is a snail from the family of cone snails (genus Conus ), which is widespread in the Indo-Pacific .
features
Conus spectrum bears a medium-sized to large, moderately light to firm snail shell , the shell thickness of which can vary by 50% in specimens of the same size and which is 3 to 7.6 cm in length in adult snails. The circumference of the body is usually bulbous, conical, occasionally conical-cylindrical or egg-shaped, the outline near the apex convex, more straight towards the base, the left side usually concave above the protruding fasciole. The case mouth is wider at the base than it is next to the shoulder. The shoulder is angled or almost angled. The thread is low, its outline is concave. The Protoconch has 2 ¼ to 2 ¾ whorls and measures a maximum of 0.8 to 1.1 mm. The first whorls of the Teleoconch are occasionally wavy or covered with weak tubercles. The seam ramps of the Teleoconch are almost flat with 0 to 2 to 3 to 5 increasing equally large or 7 to 8 alternately wide spiral grooves, between which mostly elevations as well as separate ribs run. One third to one half of the body around the base is covered with ribs and ribbons that run spirally at alternating intervals and are separated from one another by grooves.
The basic color of the housing is white. Yellowish-orange to dark brown axial stripes, flames and spots usually run around the body, which are generally concentrated or fused into 2 to 3 interrupted or continuous spiral bands. In addition to white casings, there are graded brown shells with a paler central band, while next to shells with an irregularly arranged pattern there are shells with a regular net-like pattern between the spiral bands. Some specimens also have wavy or straight, continuous or broken brown axial lines from the base to the shoulder or shoulder ramp, some with tightly packed, dotted to continuous spiral lines. The whorls of the Protoconch are white to pale brown. The seam ramps of the late walkways have narrow to wide and converging radial markings that correspond in color to the pattern of the body walkways. The shells have a plain white to almost brown thread. The case mouth is generally white to bluish white and often somewhat translucent.
The thin, translucent, smooth periostracum is pale olive gray.
In Western Australia, the snail itself is pale cream with light brown spots, the foot with a thin black edge. In Eastern Australia, the sole and sides of the foot are white, the top of the foot on the sides with a fine black line that widens to a spot in the front. The sipho is white with a spotless tip and brown transverse lines towards its base. In the Timor Sea , the top of the foot has a narrow band in front of the edge that widens to a spot at each corner at both ends.
distribution and habitat
Conus spectrum is distributed in the Indo-Pacific off Madagascar , Indonesia , Papua New Guinea , the Philippines , the Ryūkyū Islands , Taiwan and Australia ( Queensland ). It lives in the intertidal zone and up to a depth of about 50 m on sandy surfaces.
Development cycle
Like all cone snails, Conus spectrum is separate sexes, and the male mates with his penis . Veliger larvae hatch from the egg capsules deposited by the female and swim freely before sinking down and metamorphosed into crawling snails .
nutrition
So far there are no publications about the diet and the range of prey of Conus spectrum . According to the system of JK Tucker and MJ Tenorio (2009), Conus spectrum belongs to the genus Phasmoconus , which is a subgenus of Conus after the revision by N. Puillandre, TF Duda, C. Meyer, BM Olivera and P. Bouchet (2015) . From this species-rich sub-genus, the feeding behavior has only been observed in Conus flavus , a fish-eating species. It is assumed that the other species of this sub-genus and thus also the ghost cone eat fish.
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] spectrum Linn., P. 57.
- Jerry G. Walls: Cone Shells: A Synopsis of the Living Conidae TFH Publications, Neptune (New Jersey) 1979. pp. 856f.
- 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
Individual evidence
- ↑ JK Tucker, MJ Tenorio (2009): Systematic Classification of Recent and Fossil Conoidean Gastropods. ConchBooks, Hankenheim 2009.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Baldomero M. Olivera, Jon Seger, Martin P. Horvath, Alexander E. Fedosov: Prey-Capture Strategies of Fish-Hunting Cone Snails: Behavior, Neurobiology and Evolution. In: Brain, behavior and evolution. Volume 86, number 1, September 2015, pp. 58-74, doi : 10.1159 / 000438449 , PMID 26397110 , PMC 4621268 (free full text) (review).