''Conus abrolhosensis'' is a species of

sea snail Sea snails are slow-moving marine (ocean), marine gastropod Mollusca, molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the Taxonomic classification, taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguishe ...

, a marine

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...

in the family Conidae, the cone snails, cone shells or cones.Bouchet, P. (2015). Conus abrolhosensis Petuch, 1987. In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=429226 on 2015-06-24 These snails are

predatory Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...

and

venomous Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a sti ...

. They are capable of

stinging Sting may refer to: * Stinger or sting, a structure of an animal to inject venom, or the injury produced by a stinger * Irritating hairs or prickles of a stinging plant, or the plant itself Fictional characters and entities * Sting (Middle-ear ...

humans.

Description

(Original description) The shell is relatively small for its genus. it has a biconic shape and an elevated spire. The body whorl is shiny and polished, featuring numerous raised spiral cords that become more pronounced toward the anterior end. The shoulder is sharply angled and carinated, with a coronated carina on the spire; these coronations are prominent on the early whorls but gradually diminish and become nearly obsolete on the final half of the body whorl. The aperture is narrow. The shell’s color varies, ranging from orange (as seen in the holotype) to shades of white and blue-purple. The holotype displays scattered white patches around the mid-body and anterior tip. Its spire whorls are dark orange with evenly spaced, oval-shaped white flammules along the periphery. In white and purple specimens, the spire is dark brown but retains the same pattern of evenly spaced white flammules. The protoconch is large and mamillate. The periostracum is thin, translucent, and smooth, featuring a row of small tufts along the shoulder carina and spire carina, aligned with the shoulder coronations. The size of the shell varies between 11 mm and 30 mm.

Distribution

Locus typicus: "Off Parcel das Paredes,

Abrolhos Archipelago The Abrolhos Archipelago () are a group of 5 small islands with coral reefs off the southern coast of Bahia state in the Northeast Region, Brazil, northeast of Brazil, between 17º25’—18º09’ S and 38º33’—39º05’ W. Caravelas is the ...

, Bahia State, Brazil." This marine species of Cone snail occurs in the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

and off the

, Eastern

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Etymology

"Named for the

and reef complex,
Bahia State, Brazil - the type locality."Petuch, E.J. 1987-''New Caribbean Molluscan Faunas'', page 143. Publ: CERF

References

* Coltro, J. Jr. 2004. ''New species of Conidae from northeastern Brazil (Mollusca: Gastropoda).'' Strombus 11: 1-16 *

External links

To World Register of Marine Species

Cone Shells - Knights of the Sea
* abrolhosensis Gastropods described in 1987 {{Conus-stub