Conch

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Conch
Charonia tritonis in a closed snail shell, in Guam, with sea cucumber

Charonia tritonis in a closed snail shell, in Guam, with sea ​​cucumber

Systematics
Partial order : Littorinimorpha
Superfamily : Cassoidea
Family : Triton snails (Ranellidae)
Subfamily : Cymatiinae
Genre : Charonia
Type : Conch
Scientific name
Charonia tritonis
( Linnaeus , 1758)

The conch ( Charonia tritonis ) is a snail from the family of the triton snail (genus Charonia ) that feeds on echinoderms . It lives in subtropical and tropical seas and is one of the largest snails living today.

features

Housing of Charonia tritonis
Housing of Charonia tritonis

With a maximum length of 50 centimeters, the conch is one of the largest recent marine snails.

The snail shell of Charonia tritonis , which has a short siphon canal, is bulbous around the body, while the thread forms an elongated cone. The threads are slightly rounded and the seams fringed. The smooth surface is provided with flat, blunt ribs. She is white, red and brownish-red pied. The spindle is white and wrinkled, the mouth red. The edge of the lip has black spots with two white teeth. The snail is as thick as an arm, yellowish or reddish to white and has brown and red spots.

The operculum of the conch is dazzling white to beige on the top and bottom. With the maximum diameter in the largest semi-axis of the find of 10 cm, it belongs to the heavyweight class and for these reasons is of no interest for making jewelry.

distribution

The conch Charonia tritonis is widespread in the tropical and subtropical areas of the Indo-Pacific . It lives in the Red Sea , in the Indian Ocean from the coast of East Africa and South Africa , Madagascar and the Persian Gulf eastward, in the Pacific Ocean to eastern Polynesia , north to Japan , Midway and Hawaii , south to South Queensland , Lord Howe Island and New Zealand .

The closely related Atlantic Triton , Charonia variegata (Lamarck, 1816), also known as conch and by some biologists as a subspecies Charonia tritonis variegata construed, according WoRMS however, recognized as a separate species, both sides enters the Atlantic Ocean , including the Caribbean Sea and in the Mediterranean Sea on .

habitat

Charonia tritonis lives in the intertidal zone and below about 30 meters sea depth on coral reefs.

Life cycle

Like other front gill snails , conchons are of separate sexes. The male mates with the female with his penis . The female lays the eggs in clusters of solid oval egg capsules, each containing around 3000 eggs with a diameter of around 400-430 µm. Females often stay close to the eggs after oviposition. The Veliger larvae hatch after about 6-8 weeks, initially have a length of about 770-930 µm and then go through a pelagic phase lasting several months , so that the snail spreads very widely. During the metamorphosis to the finished snail, the shell is already longer than 5 mm. Little is known about the Veliger larvae: So far, they have not survived in an aquarium for more than two months, so the snails have not yet been bred.

nutrition

Charonia tritonis feeds on echinoderms (Echinodermata), especially starfish . With the snail's acidic saliva, the prey animals are paralyzed and their calcareous skeletons softened. Depending on its size and consistency, the prey is swallowed whole or drilled in one place and then eaten away.

The conch prey also includes the highly poisonous crown of thorns starfish ( Acanthaster planci ), which endangers many tropical reefs due to its eating activity on the polyps of the hard corals . Charonia tritonis looks for the mouth opening of the starfish with its proboscis and begins to eat it from this point under the action of acid in the saliva. Eating can take up to a day. Acanthaster is often at least partially able to save itself through autotomy , so that only part of the starfish is eaten.

Due to the poisonous prey, Charonia tritonis ingests a number of toxins which can be dangerous to humans through the consumption of its meat. This also includes tetrodotoxin (TTX), which comes from certain comb stars ( astropects ).

Danger

Operculum from Charonia tritonis and Turbo radiatus as followers

Because of the imposing housing, the conch is collected and is facing extinction in many areas. In Queensland (Australia) it is protected. According to the German Federal Species Protection Ordinance ( Appendix 1 ), the housings may not be introduced. In terms of global risk, however, it is not included in the Red List.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ C. Brüggemann: The natural history in faithful illustrations and with a detailed description of the same. Eduard Eisenach publisher, Leipzig 1838. The molluscs. P. 73. The real conch. Murex Tritonis Linn. s. Tritonium variegatum Cuv.
  2. ↑ Carolus Linnaeus : Systema Naturae. 10th ed., Lars Salvius: Stockholm 1758, p. 754. 488. Murex Tritonis.
  3. ↑ World Register of Marine Species , World Marine Mollusca database: Charonia variegata (Lamarck, 1816): accepted , Charonia tritonis variegata Lamarck, 1816: unaccepted
  4. ↑ CJ Berg Jr .: Egg capsule and early veliger of Charonia tritonis (Linnaeus). In: Veliger. 13 (3): 1971, 298. (Source: RD-Ref 105), biostor.org .
  5. ↑ a b Jintana Nugranad, Supot Chantrapornsilp, Thanee Varapibal: Feeding and spawning behavior of the trumpet triton, Charonia tritonis (L. 1758) in captivity. (PDF; 329 kB), Phuket Marine Biological Center Special Publication 21 (1): 2000, 51–56.
  6. ↑ Appendix 1 (to § 1) of the Federal Species Protection Ordinance
  7. ↑ Fischhaus Zepkow: Family Ranellidae - Triton snails

Web links

Commons : Charonia tritonis  - Collection of images, videos and audio files