Conus Tabidus
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''Conus tabidus'' 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 and their allies. Like all species within the genus ''Conus'', 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, therefore live ones should be handled carefully or not at all. Unilke other ''Conus'' species in the waters off the continent which its synonymy is ''Africonus'', the synonymy for this one is ''Monteiroconus''.


Description

The size of the shell varies between 20 mm and 42 mm. The turbinated shell is slightly pyriform and thin. It is everywhere grooved, the basal grooves wider and rather deep, the others irregular, very fine, waved. The color of the shell is white. The entire surface is peculiarly sculptured with longitudinal striae. 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. Spire ...
is rather obtusely convex and obsoletely coronated. It is possible that this is a compound species as there are at least two population groups where the shell morphology is identical but the animal, habitat and behaviour are totally distinct. One observed population has a black animal and lives on or under mud in the upper intertidal zone, leaving the sea at night to hunt worms among the roots of vegetation on the foreshore. It has a thick robust
periostracum The periostracum ( ) is a thin, organic coating (or "skin") that is the outermost layer of the shell of many shelled animals, including molluscs and brachiopods. Among molluscs, it is primarily seen in snails and clams, i.e. in gastropods an ...
which may be "sunburned". The other population personally collected by Louis Pisani Burnay and others lives in deeper water usually under stones and has a light red animal. The periostracum is brown with transverse spirals of short hairs. The egg capsules of neither group have been observed.Burnay and Monteiro 1977 Seashells from Cape Verde Islands (as ''Conus ambiguus'' Reeve, 1844)


Distribution

This marine species occurs off West Africa (
Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...
), the
Cape Verdes Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...
and
Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...
. It must be differentiated from '' Conus ambiguus'', which is not present in the Cape Verde Islands, but in West Africa. This is one of only three non-endemic species of ''Conus'' in Cape Verdes.


References

* 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


The ''Conus'' Biodiversity website

Cone Shells – Knights of the Sea
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Conus Tabidus tabidus Gastropods described in 1844 Molluscs of the Atlantic Ocean Molluscs of Angola Gastropods of Cape Verde