''Conus canonicus'', common name the tiger cone, 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. 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 shell varies between 25 mm and 70 mm. The appearance of the shell is closely related to ''

Conus textile ''Conus textile'', the textile cone or the cloth of gold cone is a venomous species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Conidae, the cone snails, cone shells or cones. Textile cone snails live mostly in the Indian Ocean, alon ...

'', but it has much smaller reticulations, more completely covering the surface.G.W. Tryon (1884) Manual of Conchology, structural and systematic, with illustrations of the species, vol. VI; Philadelphia, Academy of Natural Sciences
/ref> Conus canonicus 001

Distribution

This marine species occurs in the Red Sea, the tropical Indo-West Pacific and off Australia ( Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia)

References

* Bruguière, M. 1792. ''Encyclopédie Méthodique ou par ordre de matières. Histoire naturelle des vers''. Paris : Panckoucke Vol. 1 i-xviii, 757 pp. * Dufo, M.H. 1840. ''Observations sur les Mollusques marins, terrestres et fluviatiles des iles Séchelles et des Amirantes''. Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Paris 2 14, Zoologie: 45–80 * Reeve, L.A. 1843. ''Monograph of the genus Conus.'' pls 1–39 in Reeve, L.A. (ed.). Conchologica Iconica. London : L. Reeve & Co. Vol. 1. * Bonnet, A. 1864. ''Coquilles nouvelles ou peu connues: Acantina delorioli, Bulimus wairgeirensis, Planorbis sinuosus, Littorina aurea, Trochus millelineata, Conus rubescens.'' Revue et Magasin de Zoologie Pure et Appliquée 1864, XVI: 279–282 * Sowerby, G.B. 1866. ''Monograph of the genus Conus''. pp. 328–329 in Thesaurus Conchyliorum, or monographs of genera of shells. London : Sowerby, G.B. Vol. 3. * Hinton, A. 1972. ''Shells of New Guinea and the Central Indo-Pacific''. Milton : Jacaranda Press xviii 94 pp. * Cernohorsky, W.O. 1978. ''Tropical Pacific marine shells''. Sydney : Pacific Publications 352 pp., 68 pls. * Drivas, J.; Jay, M. (1987). ''Coquillages de La Réunion et de l'Île Maurice.'' Collection Les Beautés de la Nature. Delachaux et Niestlé: Neuchâtel. . 159 pp * Wilson, B. 1994. ''Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch Gastropods''. Kallaroo, WA : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 2 370 pp. * Röckel, D., Korn, W. & Kohn, A.J. 1995. ''Manual of the Living Conidae. Volume 1: Indo-Pacific Region''. Wiesbaden : Hemmen 517 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
File:Conus canonicus 1.jpg, ''Conus canonicus'' Hwass in Bruguière, J.G., 1792 File:Conus canonicus 2.jpg, ''Conus canonicus'' Hwass in Bruguière, J.G., 1792

External links

The ''Conus'' Biodiversity website

Cone Shells – Knights of the Sea
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Conus canonicus canonicus Gastropods described in 1792