Cymatium

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Cymatium
Cymatium spec. near Alor, Indonesia

Cymatium spec. near Alor , Indonesia

Systematics
Subordination : Hypsogastropoda
Partial order : Littorinimorpha
Superfamily : Cassoidea
Family : Triton snails (Ranellidae)
Subfamily : Cymatiinae
Genre : Cymatium
Scientific name
Cymatium
Röding , 1798

Cymatium , also in German for the throat ridge , is the name of agenus of snails from the Triton snail family, with up to 100 species in all tropical regions of the world's oceans. The small to large snails are predatory, and the prey varies depending on the species.

features

A feather cone ( Conus pennaceus ) attacks Nicobaric triton snails ( Cymatium nicobaricum ).

The right- hand wound casings of the Cymatium species are, like others, trochospiral, i.e. not rolled up in one plane, but three-dimensionally. The snails are significantly smaller than the conch horns (genus Charonia ). There is a greater range in the shapes and sizes of the housing and in the length of the siphon channel.

Most Cymatium species live in rather shallow tropical waters, but there are also some species in temperate latitudes and at depths of up to 400 meters.

All Cymatium species are separate sexes and have internal fertilization. The females lay numerous egg capsules, each of which can contain several thousand eggs. There are no eggs. The Veliger larvae go through a pelagic phase up to their metamorphosis , which in some species lasts several months and thus helps them to spread widely.

All of the representatives of the genus Cymatium investigated so far are carnivores, which, depending on the species , feed on sea ​​squirts , tube worms , mussels , snails or echinoderms , as well as carrion . With the help of the acidic saliva, the prey animals are paralyzed and their calcareous skeletons softened. Some Cymatium species, especially Cymatium muricinum , can become a problem in mussel farming. The tiny Veliger larvae of the snails can penetrate into mussel cages, which are supposed to protect the mussels from predators, and after their metamorphosis go on the hunt for prey in the cage as finished Triton snails.

While some Cymatium are TYPES able also cone snails to capture some cone snail species occur again as predators of Cymatium on, including Conus textile and Conus pennaceus .

Systematics

About 100 species and at least 10 subspecies have been described for the genus Cymatium . Recently the genus has been divided into several smaller ones.

literature

  • Betty Jean Piech: Ranellidae and Personidae: A Classification of Recent Species. Delaware Museum of Natural History, Wilmington Del. 1995, OCLC 33600855 , 60 pp.
  • Thomas Henning, Jens Hemmen: Ranellidae and Personidae of the World. Christa Hemmen, Wiesbaden 1993, ISBN 978-3-925919-16-9 .
  • Frank Riedel: Origin and evolution of the "higher" Caenogastropoda. Berliner Geoscientific Abhandlungen, Series E, Volume 32, Berlin 2000, 240 pages, ISBN 3-89582-077-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Friedrich Röding (1798): Museum Boltenianum, sive, Catalogus cimeliorum e tribus regnis naturae quae olim collegerat Joa. Fried. Bolten : pars secunda continens conchylia sive testacea univalvia, bivalvia et multivalvia . Reprinted by the British Museum , London, 1906. Page 129, Ark 67, Cymatium , Die Kehl-Schiste.
  2. ↑ a b Hugh Govan: Cymatium muricinum and Other Ranellid Gastropods: Major Predators of Cultured Tridacnid Clams (PDF; 3.0 MB) . ICLARM Technical Reports 49. Manila, 1995. 150 pages.
  3. ^ Alan J. Kohn: Ecology of Conus in Hawaii. In: E. Alison Kay (ed.): A Natural History of the Hawaiian Islands: Selected Readings II. University of Hawaii Press, 1994, ISBN 978-0-8248-1659-9 , pp. 210-254.
  4. ^ World Register of Marine Species , World Marine Mollusca database: Cymatium Röding, 1798

Web links

Commons : Cymatium  - collection of images, videos and audio files