Wedding cone
| Wedding cone | ||||||||||||
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Housing of Conus sponsalis |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Conus sponsalis | ||||||||||||
| Hwass in Bruguière , 1792 |
The wedding cone or Wedding cone shell ( Conus sponsalis ) is a screw from the family of the cone snails (genus Conus ), which in Indopazifik is used and from Vielborstern - in particular Nereididae and Eunicidae - fed.
features
Conus sponsalis carries a small to moderately small, moderately light to moderately firm snail shell , which in adult snails reaches 1.5 to 3.5 cm in length. The circumference of the body is conical to broadly bellied, seldom slightly pear-shaped, the outline convex towards the apex and straight towards the base. In large animals, the case mouth often has a conspicuous spiral crest in the middle. The shoulder is rounded to angled to rounded and slightly to clearly occupied with tubercles. The thread is low to medium high and its outline is concave to convex. The Protoconch has about 4 to 5 whorls and measures a maximum of 0.7 mm. The first whorls of the Teleoconch are covered with fine tubercles. The seam ramps of the Teleoconch are flat to slightly concave with 1 to 4 spiral grooves that disappear at the later passageways. The circumference of the body is covered halfway towards the base with fine, granular spiral ribs.
The basic color of the housing is white, with the nanus shape mostly with a noticeable blue shadow. The body around the body usually has a color pattern of reddish-brown, axial flames arranged in 2 spiral rows, which are often reduced in size or fused into bands. The base and basal part of the spindle are purple blue. The seam ramps of the Teleoconch are reddish to blackish brown spotted between the tubercles. The inside of the case mouth is deeper in the case dark bluish-purple.
The thin, translucent, smooth periostracum is yellow to brown, sometimes thicker and opaque at the growth edge and in large animals.
In the form of nanus , the pattern of the body is either reduced to a few spots and a small number of dotted or dashed spiral lines or is completely absent, the pattern of the thread is either reduced to spots and dots between the tubercles or is completely absent, and the case mouth has a light purple color Shade, but also a more pronounced brown and blue shade.
The foot is narrow with a pale pink or white upper surface spotted with elongated light white markings: the front section often has dense red stripes or is continuously pink with 2 lateral red spots, occasionally with a dark gray spot in the middle, the rear section occasionally red. The sole of the foot is red with white vertical stripes or alternately shaped spots, mostly shaded uniformly pink and with red ends, in some animals a single color pink. The rostrum and antennae are alternately red and white. The sipho is white to red with axial white markings and a dark pink to red tip, occasionally all pink.
The small radula teeth connected to a poison gland have a barb on the tip and a cutting edge on the opposite side. They are sawn from the base of the barb along the cutting edge. The shaft has two constrictions just behind the cutting edge and at the base. A spur sits on the nodule at the base.
distribution and habitat
Conus sponsalis is distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific , from the Red Sea and the coast of East Africa ( Mozambique ) and South Africa via Aldabra , Chagos and the Mascarene Mountains to New Zealand and Australia ( New South Wales , Northern Territory , Queensland , Western Australia ).
It is very common on coral banks of the intertidal zone, less often on coral reefs below the intertidal zone, with some animals being carried off to depths of 100 m. It usually stays on the surface of the subsurface in both protected and exposed areas. In the intertidal zone, it lives on beach rock and limestone, with sand and algae in small sand-filled depressions, coral rubble and crevices, more rarely on larger sandy areas or bare limestone. Below the intertidal zone, it lives on reef surfaces, pinnacles of lagoons and at depths of up to about 18 m on sand or reef rocks made of limestone with algae grass, coral rubble and crevices in dead corals.
The typical form and the form nanus occur together in some mixed populations, but there is usually only one form, or one form dominates.
Development cycle
Like all cone snails, Conus sponsalis is sexually separated, and the male mates with the female with his penis . In the nanus form , the eggs in the egg capsules have a diameter of about 135 µm, from which it is concluded that the Veliger larvae swim freely for at least 29 days before they sink down and metamorphose into crawling snails .
nutrition
The prey of Conus sponsalis consists of erranten Vielborstern especially the families Nereididae and Eunicidae he with his Radulazähnen stands and using the poison out of his venom glands immobilized.
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] ceylonensis , var. Sponsalis Hwass., P. 23.
- Jerry G. Walls: Cone Shells: A Synopsis of the Living Conidae TFH Publications, Neptune (New Jersey) 1979. p. 858.
- 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).
