Striped cone snail
| Striped cone snail | ||||||||||||
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Conus striatus near Guam |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Conus striatus | ||||||||||||
| Linnaeus , 1758 |
The striped cone , also the striped cone snail or striped cone snail ( Conus striatus ) is a snail from the cone snail family (genus Conus ) that lives in the Indo-Pacific . The poison of this fish-eating cone snail is also dangerous to humans.
features
The inverted conical shell of Conus striatus in the front and middle part approaches a cylindrical to convex shape in the rear section. In adult snails it reaches a length of 5.5 to 12.9 cm. The basic color of the housing is white and shaded gray, blue, pink or purple in places. The surface of the perimeter of the body has brown to black spots on its white background and is covered with spiral stripes. The threads are set off from one another like a staircase and patterned like a mosaic. They form a flat, sometimes slightly concave cone. The periostracum is yellow to olive green or reddish brown, thin and translucent.
The top of the foot is white with dense brown spots. The white sole of the foot speckled brown. The rostrum is white to beige with brown spots and longitudinal stripes except distally. The antennae and tip of the siphon are unspotted white.
The siphon and the proboscis ( proboscis ) with their harpoon teeth can be stretched out to approximately the length of the snail's body.
The radula teeth connected to a venom gland are long and have a short anterior barb at the tip, a long posterior barb with a curved tip and a short additional hook between and almost perpendicular to the others on the opposite side. A saw with teeth and a spur are missing.
distribution
The striped cone is widespread and occurs in the Red Sea and in the Indian Ocean around the Aldabra Atoll, Madagascar , the Mascarene Islands , Mauritius and off Tanzania , in the Pacific Ocean from the Philippines to Hawaii , off Australia , New Zealand , New Caledonia and Thailand .
habitat
Striped cones live on sand in coral reefs up to 20 m deep, often under rocks. They often dig themselves into the sandy subsoil.
Life cycle
Like all cone snails, Conus striatus is sexually separate, and the male mates with his penis . Veliger larvae hatch from the egg capsules , which in turn undergo a metamorphosis into snails. The eggs have a diameter of 235 to 255 µm. From this it is concluded that the pelagic period of the Veliger lasts about 19 to 20 days. A pelagic period of 21 days was observed in an experiment in Hawaii with an egg diameter of 250 µm.
food
The prey of Conus striatus consists mainly of fish , occasionally molluscs are also eaten. The cone snail hunts mainly at night and crawls up to fish that are resting, stretches out its proboscis to them and stabs with the harpoon. The poison works in seconds. The prey is swallowed within a few seconds. Fish killed shortly before in the experiment are partly ignored, partly also harpooned and eaten.
Enemies
Predatory snails have been observed as enemies of the striped cone, including the weaver's cone ( Conus textile ) and the species Pleuroploca filamentosa (family Fasciolariidae ).
Importance to humans
Conus striatus is a popular collector's item because of its patterned housing, so that humans can be regarded as a main enemy. The striped cone is not included in the red list.
Like other cone snails, the striped cone uses its poisonous harpoon not only to catch prey, but also for defense. Its fang can penetrate gloves and diving suits. There is no antidote , so treatment is aimed at keeping the person alive until the toxins are gone.
Poison
The venom of this type consists of glycosylated peptides, one with 30 amino acids and one with 37 amino acids.
The poison causes tetanus-like cramps. Experiments have shown that the poison inactivates the sodium channels in mouse neuroblasts and rat brains.
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] striatus Linn., P. 85.
- Jerry G. Walls: Cone Shells: A Synopsis of the Living Conidae TFH Publications, Neptune (New Jersey) 1979. p. 871.
- 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 striatus Linnaeus, 1758
- BN Sullivan: Conus striatus - A fish-eating cone shell
- National Geographic: Geographic Cone Snail. Conus striatus
- Underwater Kwajalein: Conus striatus Linnaeus, 1758
- Conus striatus inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Posted by: Duda, T., 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2014.
Individual evidence
- ^ Fischhaus Zepkow: Family Conidae - cone snails
- ↑ Wayne P. Kelley, Joseph R. Schulz, Jennifer A. Jakubowski, William F. Gilly, Jonathan V. Sweedler (2006): Two Toxins from Conus striatus that Individually Induce Tetanic Paralysis. Biochemistry 45 (47), pp. 14212-14222, doi: 10.1021 / bi061485s
- ↑ T. Gonoi, Y. Ohizumi, J. Kobayashi, H. Nakamura, WA Catterall (1987): Actions of a polypeptide toxin from the marine snail Conus striatus on voltage-sensitive sodium channels. Molecular Pharmacology 32 (5), pp. 691-698.