Oak cone
| Oak cone snail | ||||||||||||
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Housing of Conus quercinus |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Conus quercinus | ||||||||||||
| ( Lightfoot ), 1786 |
The oak cone or the oak cone snail ( Conus quercinus ) is a snail from the family of cone snails (genus Conus ), which lives in the Indo-Pacific and eats acorn worms and poly- bristles.
features
The circumference of the snail shell of Conus quercinus is broadly conical and slightly convex. In adult snails, the house reaches a length of 6 to 14 cm. The basic color of the housing is usually yellowish brown, in some forms white. The surface around the body is usually more or less densely covered with fine brown, spiraling lines. The thread is concave. The periostracum is dark brown or greenish brown, thick and opaque with interwoven longitudinal ribs.
The top of the foot is almost white at the front and yellowish to brownish further back, with a dark gray border at the edge. It is covered in front and in the middle with transverse rows of black lines, behind with isolated black lines and white dots. There is a light brown spot in front of the operculum. The yellowish gray sole of the foot is spotted brown. The head and antennae are cream colored and have black spots. The sipho is white to brownish gray with dark gray and black spots and rings.
distribution
The oak cone snail is found in the Red Sea and much of the Indian and Pacific Oceans from the coast of East Africa to Hawaii and French Polynesia .
habitat
Oak cone snails live below the intertidal zone on sand up to 70 meters deep.
Life cycle
Like all cone snails, Conus quercinus is sexually separate and the male mates with the female with his penis . Veliger larvae hatch from the egg capsules , which in turn undergo a metamorphosis into snails. The egg capsules are 17-26 mm by 17-22 mm in size. One capsule contains around 10,000 eggs that are 180 to 200 µm in diameter. From this it is concluded that the pelagic period of the Veliger lasts at least 25-30 days. In Hawaii, a pelagic period of 30 days was observed with an egg size of 180 µm.
food
Oak cone snails eat acorn worms and polychaetes , including members of the Terebellidae family , which are killed using a harpoon with a poisonous radula tooth .
Importance to humans
Due to its patterned housing, Conus quercinus is a popular collector's item, so that humans can be considered a main enemy. However, it is not included in the red list.
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] quercinus Hwass., P. 17.
- 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 quercinus (Lightfoot), 1786
- Underwater Kwajalein: Conus quercinus (Lightfoot), 1786
- Conus quercinus inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Posted by: Duda, T., 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2014.