''Conus mappa'' is a species of

sea snail Sea snail is a common name for slow-moving marine gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguished from snails primarily by the ...

, a marine

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

mollusk 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, groups onl ...

, the

cone snails A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines co ...

and their allies. There are two recognized subspecies: * ''Conus mappa jesusramirezi'' (Cossignani, 2010) * ''Conus mappa trinitarius'' Hwass in Bruguière, 1792. * ''Conus mappa granarius'' Kiener, 1845.: synonym of '' Conus granarius'' The junior homonym ''Conus mappa'' Crosse, 1858 is a synonym of ''

Conus eldredi ''Conus eldredi'' is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Conidae, the cone snails and their allies. Like all species within the genus ''Conus'', these snails are predatory and venomous. They are known to sting huma ...

'' Morrison, 1955. Like all species within the genus ''Conus'', these snails are predatory and venomous. They are capable of "stinging" humans, therefore live ones should be handled carefully or not at all.

Description

The size of the wide shell varies between 36 mm and 67 mm. The spire contains small nodules and has a smooth shoulder. The

body whorl The body whorl is part of the morphology of the shell in those gastropod mollusks that possess a coiled shell. The term is also sometimes used in a similar way to describe the shell of a cephalopod mollusk. In gastropods In gastropods, the b ...

is smooth and has a very variable color pattern of milkish white to pinkish white with two spiral bands of greenish yellow to darker brown. These bands are broken into irregular patches. The spiral whorls show very fine longitudinal grooves. The aperture is whitish. Danker L.N. Vink and Rudo Von Cosel,.''The Conus cedonulli complex: Historical review, taxonomy and biological observations''; Revue suisse de zoologie t. 92 fasc. 3–4
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Distribution

This species occurs in the Caribbean Sea off Venezuela, Trinidad - and Barbados where it occurs only at 85 fathoms/155 metres depth

References

* Holeman J; and Kohn A.J. (1970), The identity of ''Conus mappa'' (Lightfoot), ''C. insularis'' Gmelin, ''C. aurantius'' Hwass in Bruguière and Hwass's infraspecific taxa of ''C. cedonulii''; Journal of Conchology 27 135:137 * Tucker J.K. & Tenorio M.J. (2013) ''Illustrated catalog of the living cone shells''. 517 pp. Wellington, Florida: MdM Publishing.
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

Gallery

File:Conus mappa trinitarius 1.jpg, ''Conus mappa trinitarius'' Hwass in Bruguière, J.G., 1792 File:Conus mappa trinitarius 2.jpg, ''Conus mappa trinitarius'' Hwass in Bruguière, J.G., 1792

External links

The ''Conus'' Biodiversity website
* *
Cone Shells – Knights of the Sea
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conus Mappa

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Gastropods described in 1786