Conus bullatus
Encyclopedia
Conus bullatus, common name
the bubble cone, 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 capable of "stinging" humans, therefore live ones should be handled carefully or not at all.
orange-red and chestnut, forming two ill-defined bands, with indistinct revolving rows of white and chestnut articulations. The aperture
is pink.
; in the Indo-West Pacific (the Philippines
, New Caledonia
)
Common name
A common name of a taxon or organism is a name in general use within a community; it is often contrasted with the scientific name for the same organism...
the bubble cone, is a species of sea snail
Sea snail
Sea snail is a common name for those snails that normally live in saltwater, marine gastropod molluscs....
, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Conidae, the cone snails
Conus
Conus is a large genus of small to large predatory sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs, with the common names of cone snails, cone shells or cones. This genus is placed in the subfamily Coninae within the family Conidae. Geologically speaking, the genus is known from the Eocene to the Recent ...
and their allies.
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 an adult shell varies between 42 mm and 82 mm. The thin shell is inflated and grooved below. The color of the shell is white, clouded withorange-red and chestnut, forming two ill-defined bands, with indistinct revolving rows of white and chestnut articulations. The aperture
Aperture (mollusc)
The aperture is an opening in certain kinds of mollusc shells: it is the main opening of the shell, where part of the body of the animal emerges for locomotion, feeding, etc....
is pink.
Distribution
This species occurs in the Indian Ocean along the Mascarene Basin and MauritiusMauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
; in the Indo-West Pacific (the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...
)
External links
- The Conus Biodiversity website
- Hu H., Bandyopadhyay P. K., Olivera B. M. & Yandell M. (2011). "Characterization of the Conus bullatus genome and its venom-duct transcriptome". BMC Genomics 12: 60. doi:10.1186/1471-2164-12-60.
- Gastropods.com: Textilia bullatus; accessed : 13 July 2011