''Cypraea tigris'', commonly known as the tiger cowrie, is a species of

cowry Cowrie or cowry () is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails in the family Cypraeidae. Cowrie shells have held cultural, economic, and ornamental significance in various cultures. The cowrie was the shell most widely used wo ...

, a large

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

Cypraeidae Cypraeidae, common name, commonly named the cowries ( cowry or cowrie), is a Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic family (biology), family of small to large sea snails. These are marine (ocean), marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Cypraeoidea, ...

, the cowries.

Taxonomy

The tiger cowry was one of the many species originally described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in his 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'', and the species still bears its original name of ''Cypraea tigris''. Its

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

''tigris'' relates to its common name "tiger" (the shell however is spotted, not striped). This species is the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

of the genus '' Cypraea''.

Subspecies and forms

* ''Cypraea tigris'' form ''incana'' Sulliotti, G.R., 1924 * ''Cypraea tigris'' form ''lyncicrosa'' Steadman, W.R. & B.C. Cotton, 1943 * ''Cypraea tigris'' var. ''schilderiana '' Cate, C.N., 1961 The variety ''Cypraea tigris'' var. ''schilderiana'' was recognized by Cate in 1961. It differs from ''Cypraea tigris'' in its large size (10–13 cm) and the lack of a thick marginal callus. This variety is found in the Hawaiian Islands, Johnston Island, and Vietnam. * ''Cypraea tigris'' form ''tuberculifera'' Sulliotti, G.R., 1924

Description

Roughly egg-shaped and dextral, the glossy

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

is large and heavy for a cowry. It measures up to 15 cm (6 in) in length, and the upper or dorsal side is white, pale bluish-white, or buff, densely covered with dark brown or blackish barely circular spots. Akin to many other '' Cypraea'' snails, the shells surface is notably effulgent, as if it were deliberately polished. There is sometimes a blurred red line along the length of the shell at the midline on the dorsal surface. The lower margins are rounded (that is, there is no sharp margin between the upper and lower surfaces of the shell as is found in some other cowries). The ventral side is white or whitish, and the shell opening is lined with tooth-like serrations. As is the case in almost all cypraeids, two lateral extensions of the mantle are able to extend so as to cover the shell completely, meeting at the midline of the dorsal surface. The mantle can also withdraw into the shell opening when threatened. In this species, the exterior surface of the mantle has numerous pin-like projections that are white-tipped.

Distribution and habitat

The tiger cowrie is found on the ocean floor in the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

region, from the eastern coast of Africa to the waters of Micronesia and Polynesia, the Coral Sea and around the Philippines. Along the Australian Coast it is found from northern New South Wales to northern Western Australia, as well as

Lord Howe Island Lord Howe Island (; formerly Lord Howe's Island) is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, part of the Australian state of New South Wales. It lies directly east of mainland Port ...

, and along the east coast of Africa including

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

. Found between depths of 10 and 40 metres (35–130 ft), it is often associated with live coral colonies, such as the table-forming ''

Acropora ''Acropora'' is a genus of small polyp stony coral in the phylum Cnidaria. Some of its species are known as table coral, elkhorn coral, and staghorn coral. Over 149 species are described. ''Acropora'' species are some of the major reef corals ...

'',(file created 1 April) 2009
''Singapore Red Data Book 2008''
. Retrieved 6 September 2009. either found on the reefs themselves or the sandy sea bottom nearby. Once common, it is now much less abundant due to shell collecting and the destruction of its habitat by such processes as dynamite fishing, especially in shallower areas. Carnivorous, the adult tiger cowrie eats

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

and various

invertebrate Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...

s, while juveniles eat

alga Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular microalgae, suc ...

e. This species is endangered in Singapore.

Diet

The

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

an subspecies ''C. t. schilderiana'' naturally predates on invasive

sponge Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a basal clade and a sister taxon of the diploblasts. They are sessile filter feeders that are bound to the seabed, and a ...

s. Sponge species included

Dysidea ''Dysidea'' is a genus of sponges belonging to the family Dysideidae. The genus has cosmopolitan distribution In biogeography, a cosmopolitan distribution is the range of a taxon that extends across most or all of the surface of the Earth ...

spp., Mycale parishii, M. grandis, Haliclona caerulea, Halichondria coerulea, Cladocroce burapha, and Gelliodes wilsoni. (Compounds in Monanchora clathrata acted as a repellent and so ''C. t. schilderiana'' avoided them.) Thus ''C. t. schilderiana'' was found to be controlling invasive populations. This shows the importance of ''C. t. schilderiana'' in maintaining the normal variety of life in Hawaiian

marine habitats A marine habitat is a habitat that supports marine life. Marine life depends in some way on the saltwater that is in the sea (the term ''marine'' comes from the Latin ''mare'', meaning sea or ocean). A habitat is an ecological or environmen ...

by constraining

invasive species in Hawaii As with a number of other geographically isolated islands, Hawaii has problems with invasive species negatively affecting the natural biodiversity of the islands. Historical examples Hawaii is the most isolated major land mass in the world and ...

Human use

Despite the fact that this species does not occur in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

, shells of the tiger cowrie and the related panther cowrie, ''

Cypraea pantherina ''Cypraea pantherina'', common name the panther cowry, is a species of large tropical sea snail, a cowry, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries. The panther cowry is one of only two species currently included in the g ...

'', have been unearthed at

Pompeii Pompeii ( ; ) was a city in what is now the municipality of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Villa Boscoreale, many surrounding villas, the city was buried under of volcanic ash and p ...

, the ancient Roman city near

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

, Italy, where these shells may have been used as some form of ornament. It is also conceivable that the shells were part of a natural history collection. There was an interest in natural history at the time, as exemplified by

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

who wrote extensively about seashells in his book

Natural History Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

and who died investigating the eruption of

Vesuvius Mount Vesuvius ( ) is a Somma volcano, somma–stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of several volcanoes forming the Campanian volcanic arc. Vesuv ...

. The shells of this species of cowry are still popular among shell collectors, and are also used as a decorative object, even in modern times. The shell of ''Cypraea tigris'' is believed to help to facilitate

childbirth Childbirth, also known as labour, parturition and delivery, is the completion of pregnancy, where one or more Fetus, fetuses exits the Womb, internal environment of the mother via vaginal delivery or caesarean section and becomes a newborn to ...

: some women in Japan hold a shell of this species during childbirth. Large cowry shells such as that of this species were used in Europe in the recent past as a frame over which

sock A sock is a piece of clothing worn on the feet and often covering the ankle or some part of the Calf (leg), calf. Some types of shoes or boots are typically worn over socks. In ancient times, socks were made from leather or matted animal hair. ...

heels were stretched for

darning Darning is a sewing technique for repairing holes or worn areas in textile, fabric or knitting using sewing needle, needle and sewing thread, thread alone. It is often done by hand, but using a sewing machine is also possible. Hand darning emp ...

, i.e. instead of using a darning egg. The cowry's smooth surface allows the darning needle to be positioned under the cloth more easily than when using a darning mushroom made of wood.

Gallery

File:Cypraea tigris.jpg, A live individual of ''Cypraea tigris'' viewed from the posterior end; note the mantle partly covering the shell. File:Sea snail and an Emperor shrimp.jpg, ''Cypraea tigris'' with mantle partly extended. File:Cauri tigre (Cypraea tigris), Zanzíbar, Tanzania, 2024-05-31, DD 53.jpg, A living individual of ''Cypraea tigris'' in Tanzania. File:Cypraea-tigris-004.jpg, Closeup look of ''Cypraea tigris'' and its mantle with projections. File:Cypraea-tigris-001.jpg, Drawing of a right-side view of the shell of ''Cypraea tigris'' from ''Index Testarum Conchyliorum''.(1742) by Niccolò Gualtieri. File:Cypraea-tigris-002.jpg, Drawing of the ventral view of a shell of ''Cypraea tigris'' from ''Index Testarum Conchyliorum'' (1742) by Niccolò Gualtieri. File:Cypraea tigris 001.png, Drawing of the animal and the shell of ''Cypraea tigris''; a) the shell b) the mantle c) foot d) siphon e) proboscis f) tentacles.

References

External links

On-line articles with ''Cypraea tigris'' in the HAWAIIAN SHELL NEWS (1960-1994)

OBIS Indo-Pacific Molluscan Database

Photos of specimens of Cypraea tigris by Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Photo of ''Cypraea tigris schilderiana'' by Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q2664666 Cypraeidae Molluscs of the Indian Ocean Molluscs of the Pacific Ocean Gastropods described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus