''Conus amadis'', common name: the Amadis cone, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

predatory Predation is a biological interaction where 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 t ...

sea snail, a

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

gastropod

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is es ...

in the family

Conidae Conidae, with the current common name of " cone snails", is a taxonomic family (previously subfamily) of predatory sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Conoidea. The 2014 classification of the superfamily Conoidea, group ...

, the cone snails or cones. Like all species within the genus Conus, these snails are

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 ...

. They are capable of "stinging" humans, therefore live ones should be handled carefully or not at all. Conus amadis

Description

The size of an adult shell varies between 40 mm and 110 mm. The

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

is striate, channeled, concavely elevated, sharp-pointed. It has a sharp shoulder angle. The lower part of body whorl is punctured and grooved The color of the shell is orange-brown to chocolate, thickly covered with large and small subtriangular white spots, which by their varied disposition sometimes form a white central band, or dark bands above and below the center, the latter occasionally bearing articulated revolving lines.

George Washington Tryon George Washington Tryon Jr. (20 May 1838 – 5 February 1888) was an American malacologist who worked at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Biography George Washington Tryon was the son of Edward K. Tryon and Adeline Savidt. ...

, Manual of Conchology vol. VI, p. 30; 1884

Distribution

This marine species occurs in the

Mascarene The Mascarene Islands (, ) or Mascarenes or Mascarenhas Archipelago is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar consisting of the islands belonging to the Republic of Mauritius as well as the French department of Réunion. Thei ...

Basin, in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

and in the Pacific Ocean along

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, New Caledonia and

Polynesia Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...

References

* Drivas, J. & M. Jay (1988). ''Coquillages de La Réunion et de l'île Maurice'' * 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 4, 2009 Edition * Tucker J.K. & Tenorio M.J. (2009) ''Systematic classification of Recent and fossil conoidean gastropods''. Hackenheim: Conchbooks. 296 pp
Puillandre N., Duda T.F., Meyer C., Olivera B.M. & Bouchet P. (2015). ''One, four or 100 genera? A new classification of the cone snails.'' Journal of Molluscan Studies. 81: 1-23

External links

*
Cone Shells - Knights of the Sea

Gallery

File:Conus amadis 2.jpg, ''Conus amadis'' Gmelin, J.F., 1791 File:Conus amadis 3.jpg, ''Conus amadis'' Gmelin, J.F., 1791 File:Conus amadis 4.jpg, ''Conus amadis'' Gmelin, J.F., 1791 {{DEFAULTSORT:Conus amadis amadis Gastropods described in 1791 Taxa named by Johann Friedrich Gmelin