Mesh cone
| Mesh cone | ||||||||||||
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Housing of the conus retifer |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Conus retifer | ||||||||||||
| Menke , 1829 |
The net cone or net cone snail ( Conus retifer ) is a snail from the family of cone snails (genus Conus ), which is common in the Indo-Pacific and eats snails.
features
Conus retifer carries a moderately small to moderately large, moderately firm to firm snail shell , which in adult snails reaches 2.5 to 7 cm in length. The circumference of the body is bulbous, conical to egg-shaped or slightly pear-shaped, the outline at the apex strongly convex, straight to concave towards the base, more concave on the left side. The shoulder is rounded to almost indistinct. The thread is low to medium high, its outline straight to convex or slightly S-shaped. The Protoconch has about 3 ¼ whorls and measures a maximum of 0.8 mm. The first 5 to 6 whorls of the teleoconch have tubercles. The seam ramps of the Teleoconch are flat to slightly convex with 1 to 4 to 7 increasing spiral grooves, on the last seam ramps also with spiral stripes. The circumference of the body is covered at the base with protruding, spiraling ribs, more towards the shoulder only with weak to decrepit spiral ribs or bands.
The basic color of the case is white to pale pink. The area around the body is usually marked with 2 broad, yellowish-brown, spirally running bands that leave 3 zones of net patterns with fine brown lines in the middle, at the base and at the shoulder. Brown areas are drawn with blackish-brown axial lines and stripes. There are bowls with sparse tent patterns and conspicuous blackish-brown axial stripes, but also bowls with fine mesh patterns and light brown spiral bands. The whorls of the Protoconch and the sewing ramps of the first 1 to 4 whorls of the Teleoconch are monochrome pale pink, while the following sewing ramps have the color pattern of the body whorl. The case mouth is white, bluish-white or light pink.
The thin, translucent, smooth periostracum is pale yellow.
The base of the snail is white with brown spots, the top on the sides with black markings. The antennae are white with orange-red tips. The sipho is white with an orange-red to red tip and a wide black ring in the middle.
The radula teeth, which are connected to a poison gland , have two opposing barbs at the tip and are sawn over a long distance along the shaft, ending in a spike about a quarter of the total length from the base.
distribution and habitat
Conus retifer is distributed in the Indo-Pacific from the East African coast of Mozambique and Tanzania via the Mascarene Islands , the coast of Indochina , Indonesia and Malaysia to Australia ( Christmas Island ), Hawaii and French Polynesia .
It lives in the intertidal zone and down to a depth of about 40 m, but mostly above 15 m; on the outside of coral reefs on sand, rubble, algae, dead and living corals as well as in caves.
Development cycle
Like all cone snails, Conus retifer is sexually separate and the male mates with his penis . The female lays egg capsules with numerous eggs. The eggs inside are about 250 µm in size, from which it is concluded that the Veliger larvae swim freely for at least 19 days before they sink down and metamorphose into crawling snails .
nutrition
Conus retifer eats snails .
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] retifer Linn., P. 89.
- 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 retifer Linnaeus, 1758
- Underwater Kwajalein: Conus retifer Linnaeus, 1758