Mediterranean cone

Mediterranean cone
	Housing of Conus ventricosus
Systematics
Partial order :	New snails (Neogastropoda)
Superfamily :	Conoidea
Family :	Cone snails (Conidae)
Genre :	Conus
Subgenus :	Lautoconus
Type :	Mediterranean cone
Scientific name
	Conus ventricosus
	Gmelin , 1791

The Mediterranean cone , also the Mediterranean cone snail ( Conus ventricosus , synonym Conus mediterraneus Hwass in Bruguière , 1792 ) is a snail from the cone snail family that feeds on a variety of different bristles . It is the only conus species in the Mediterranean and one of the few with direct development. As it is poisonous like all species of the genus Conus , it should be handled with great care.

features

The shell of an adult animal measures 13 to 63 mm, usually around 20 mm and rarely more than 30 mm. It is yellowish brown, pinkish brown, chocolate brown or olive green in color and indistinctly spotted. The thread forms a clear cone, is slightly stepped and spotted. Often there is a light horizontal stripe on the front third of the house. Inside the shell is brown with a light stripe. The brown, horny operculum has an elliptical outline and takes up about 30% of the length of the case mouth. It sits on top of the foot. The animal is grayish-brown in color.

distribution

The Mediterranean cone snail is widespread in the entire Mediterranean including the Adriatic Sea and in the Atlantic Ocean on the coast of West Africa to the Canary Islands .

habitat

The Mediterranean cone lives in reefs and seagrass beds. The animal is nocturnal and buries itself in the sand during the day. It is found just below the intertidal zone, even in rocky areas.

Development cycle

Like all cone snails, Mediterranean cones are segregated. The males and females come together in May and June on rocky ground at a depth of 0.2 to 1 m to mate, with the male mating with his penis . The female attaches her egg capsules to the underside of rocks just below the intertidal zone. A female usually produces 3 to 6 egg capsules with a width of 3 to 4 mm, height of about 6 mm and thickness of about 1 mm, each of which contains on average about 11 yolk-rich , yellow eggs and are laid in a row the convex side of one capsule follows the concave side of the other and each capsule is attached to the substrate by a strong, wide membrane. Most of the eggs develop into small crawling cone snails within three weeks in the egg capsule, so that - unlike most cone snails, which are mostly native to the Indo-Pacific - there is no free-swimming larval stage. The snails hatch through an opening, the closing membrane of which dissolves shortly before.

food

The Mediterranean cone snail feeds mainly of Vielborstern (polychaete), besides also of small mollusks . The snail brings its long and very flexible proboscis to the prey and then harpooned it with a poisonous, hooked radula tooth . The paralyzed or already killed annelworm is devoured as a whole. Extracts from the poison of the Mediterranean cone have a poisonous effect on polychaetes and mollusks. The range of prey within the polychaetes is large. In studies in Tunisia 14 polychaete species were identified as prey animals, whether considered from the families Spionidae ( Polydora antennata ) Cirratulidae ( Cirratulus cirratus ) Capitellidae ( Capitella capitata ), Maldanidae ( Clymene lumbricoides , Johnstonia clymenoides ) Syllidae ( Syllis amica ) , Nereididae ( Perinereis cultrifera , undetermined Perinereis , Nereis caudata ), Eunicidae ( Palola siciliensis ), Lumbrineridae ( Lumbrineris coccinea , undefined Lumbrineris ) and Terebellidae ( Terebella lapidaria ). The needle snail Cerithium vulgatum was also captured.

literature

K. Bandel, E. Wild: On Conus mediterraneus and Conus guinaicus. Basteria 41, pp. 33-45, 1977.
George Washington Tryon: Manual of Conchology, structural and systematic, with illustrations of the species , vol. VI; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 1884. C [onus] mediterraneus Hwass., P. 66.

Web links

Commons : Conus ventricosus - collection of images, videos and audio files

Weichtiere.at: Sea snails of the ocean floor , chapter Mediterranean cone snail (Conus mediterraneus)

Conus ventricosus inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Posted by: Tenorio, MJ & Raybaudi-Massilia, G., 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2014.

Individual evidence

↑ George Washington Tryon, Manual of Conchology. Volume VI, p. 66; 1879
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d S. Katsanevakis, E. Lefkaditou, S. Galinou-Mitsoudi, D. Koutsoubas, A. Zenetos (2008): Molluscan species of minor commercial interest in Hellenic seas: Distribution, exploitation and conservation status . Mediterranean Marine Science 9 (1), pp. 77–118, Conus mediterraneus (= ventricosus) (Hwass in Bruguière, 1792) : p. 89 f. Download PDF
^ Charles Cachia, Constantine Mifsud, Paul M. Sammut: The Marine Mollusca of the Maltese Islands: Sub-class Prosobrancia to sub-class Pulmonata, or Basommatophora. Backhuys Publishers, 2001. Conus mediterraneus Hwass in Bruguière, 1792, pp. 45-47.
↑ John D. Taylor (1987): Feeding ecology of some common intertidal neogastropods at Djerba, Tunisia. Vie et Milieu 37 (1), pp. 13-20.

[1] George Washington Tryon, Manual of Conchology. Volume VI, p. 66; 1879

[katsanevakis-et-al-2] S. Katsanevakis, E. Lefkaditou, S. Galinou-Mitsoudi, D. Koutsoubas, A. Zenetos (2008): Molluscan species of minor commercial interest in Hellenic seas: Distribution, exploitation and conservation status . Mediterranean Marine Science 9 (1), pp. 77–118, Conus mediterraneus (= ventricosus) (Hwass in Bruguière, 1792) : p. 89 f. Download PDF

[3] Charles Cachia, Constantine Mifsud, Paul M. Sammut: The Marine Mollusca of the Maltese Islands: Sub-class Prosobrancia to sub-class Pulmonata, or Basommatophora. Backhuys Publishers, 2001. Conus mediterraneus Hwass in Bruguière, 1792, pp. 45-47.

[4] John D. Taylor (1987): Feeding ecology of some common intertidal neogastropods at Djerba, Tunisia. Vie et Milieu 37 (1), pp. 13-20.