Conus marmoreus
| Conus marmoreus | |
|---|---|
| A live Conus marmoreus feeding on Cypraea caputserpensis. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): | clade Caenogastropoda clade Hypsogastropoda clade Neogastropoda |
| Superfamily: | Conoidea |
| Family: | Conidae |
| Genus: | Conus |
| Species: | C. marmoreus |
| Binomial name | |
| Conus marmoreus Linnaeus, 1758 [1] |
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| Synonyms[2] | |
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Conus marmoreus, common name the "marbled cone", is a species of predatory sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Conidae, the cone snails, cone shells or cones. This is a species which is believed to feed mostly on marine molluscs including other cone snails.[3] [2]
This snail is venomous, like all cone snails. However it is significantly less venomous than other cone snails, especially the fish-eating species, and poses no danger to humans.[4][5]
There is one subspecies: Conus marmoreus bandanus Lamarck
Contents |
[edit] Distribution
This species occurs in the Indian Ocean along Chagos and Madagascar, in the Bay of Bengal along India; in the western part of the Pacific Ocean to Fiji and the Marshall Islands. .
[edit] Shell description
The size of an adult shell can vary between 30 mm and 150 mm. In this species, the shell color can range from black with white dots, to orange with white reticulations, so arranged as to expose the white in rounded triangular large spots. The aperture is white or light pink.[6]
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A shell of Conus marmoreus after it has been cleaned
[edit] References
- ^ Linnaeus, C., 1758. Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, 10th ed., 1
- ^ a b < WoRMS (2010). Conus marmoreus Linnaeus, 1758. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=215457 on 2011-07-29
- ^ http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/aconite/marmoreus.html
- ^ "Studies of the Venoms of Some Conidae" (1963) by R. Endean and Clare Rudkin, Toxicon, 1, 49-64
- ^ http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/aconite/marmoreus.html
- ^ George Washington Tryon, Manual of Conchology vol. VI, p. 7; 1879
- Dautzenberg, Ph. (1929). Mollusques testacés marins de Madagascar. Faune des Colonies Francaises, Tome III
- Filmer R.M. (2001). A Catalogue of Nomenclature and Taxonomy in the Living Conidae 1758 - 1998. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden. 388pp
- Tucker J.K. (2009). Recent cone species database. September 4th 2009 Edition
[edit] External links
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Conus marmoreus |
- The Conus Biodiversity Website : Conus marmoreus
- Conus marmoreus -Information on this species
- Conus marmoreus, part of the Encyclopædia Romana by James Grout.
- Cone Snail Species - More information on Conus marmoreus
- Gastropods.com: Conus (Conus) marmoreus; accessed: 29 July 2011
- Cone Shells - Knights of the Sea