Soldier cone
| Soldier cone | ||||||||||||
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Housing from Conus miles |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Conus miles | ||||||||||||
| Linnaeus , 1758 |
The soldiers cone ( Conus miles ) is a screw from the family of the cone snails (genus Conus ), which in Indopazifik is widespread. It feeds on Vielborstern (Polychaeta).
features
Conus miles carries a medium-sized to large, moderately firm to heavy snail shell , which reaches 5 to 13 cm in length in adult snails. The circumference of the body is conical or bulbous conical, rarely broadly conical, the outline on the right side almost straight, on the left side convex, in the quarter concave at the base. The shoulder is angled, sometimes only almost angled. The thread is low to medium high, its outline straight to slightly concave. The Protoconch has 3 or more whorls and measures a maximum of 1 mm. The seam ramps of the Teleoconch are flat to - in the later whorls - slightly concave with 2 increasing to 3 to 4 spiral grooves that disappear in the later whorls. The third part of the body is covered at the base with ribs running in a spiral at large intervals and a few spiral threads, but the sculpting often disappears in large individuals.
The basic color of the housing is white. On the perimeter of the body, a dark brown band of different widths runs spirally above the middle, also dark brown running a third to a quarter from the base. The other surfaces are patterned like a cloud, lighter brown or olive-colored and are crossed by fine, brown to orange-colored lines that run close to each other and that extend to the shoulder ramp. In New Caledonia there are cases with a completely black body. The protoconch and the adjacent seam hitchhiking are pale yellow. The later seam ramps are white with fine brown or orange-colored axially running lines that sometimes cross dark yellow to olive-colored flares. The case mouth is translucent even in larger individuals. The periostracum is yellow to greenish-brown, thick, opaque and has axial ribs as well as spiral rows of strong tufts at large intervals on the body including the shoulder edge. In younger animals, it is smooth, thinner, and translucent.
The animal is dark gray to greenish black or completely black. The strong foot, cut off at the rear end, has paler stripes and spots on its upper side. The sipho is either monochrome or, with the exception of the end piece, spotted white.
The radula teeth connected to a poison gland have a barb at the tip and a curved cutting edge on the opposite side. They are clearly serrated with 10 to 25 pairs of small and large teeth up to about halfway down the shaft. There is a protruding spur at the base.
distribution and habitat
Conus miles is widespread in the entire Indo-Pacific , for example off Aldabra , Chagos , Madagascar , Mascarene , Mauritius , Mozambique , Tanzania and Australia ( Northern Territory , Queensland , Western Australia ), but is absent in the Red Sea. It lives in the intertidal zone, but more often below it down to a depth of around 50 m in coral reefs, bays on surfaces with sand or gravel between rocks.
Development cycle
Like all cone snails, Conus miles is segregated, and the male mates with his penis . The female lays capsules about 9.5 mm long and 6 mm wide in parallel rows under rocks. The eggs inside are about 228 µm in size, from which it is concluded that the Veliger larvae swim freely for at least 21 days before they sink down and metamorphose into crawling snails .
nutrition
The prey of Conus miles consists of both erranten and from sedentary Vielborstern , especially the families Eunicidae , Nereididae and Spionidae he with his poisonous Radulazähnen stands. In investigations on the northeast coast of Papua New Guinea , the eunicide Palola siciliensis made up a large part of the prey, but a representative of the Terebellidae was also eaten.
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] miles Linn., P. 40.
- Ramasamy Santhanam, Manavalan Gobinath, Santhanam Rames: Biology and Ecology of Pharmaceutical Marine Mollusks. CRC Press, Boca Raton 2019. p. 101.
- 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 miles Linnaeus, 1758
- Underwater Kwajalein: Conus miles Linnaeus, 1758
Individual evidence
- ^ The Conus Biodiversity Website: Conus miles Linnaeus, 1758
- ^ Alan J. Kohn (2001): Maximal species richness in Conus: Diversity, diet and habitat on reefs of northeast Papua New Guinea. Coral Reefs 20 (1), pp. 25-38, here 32.