''Conus musicus'', common name the music 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.
These snails are
predatory and
venomous. They are capable of "stinging" humans, therefore live ones should be handled carefully or not at all.
There is one subspecies ''Conus musicus parvatus''
Walls, 1979, synonym of
Conus parvatus
''Conus parvatus'' 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 "stingin ...
Walls, 1979
Description
The size of an adult shell varies between 14 mm and 30 mm. The color of the shell is whitish, with light ash-violet broad bands and narrow revolving lines of chocolate, broken up into short lines and spots. The
spire is often slightly coronate, rayed with chocolate.
[ George Washington Tryon, Manual of Conchology vol. VI, p. 11; 1879]
Distribution
this species occurs in the
Red Sea and in the Indian Ocean off
Aldabra
Aldabra is the world's second-largest coral atoll, lying south-east of the continent of Africa. It is part of the Aldabra Group of islands in the Indian Ocean that are part of the Outer Islands of the Seychelles, with a distance of 1,120 k ...
,
Chagos,
Madagascar,
Mozambique and
Tanzania; in the Central Indian Ocean (off
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
and the
Maldives) to the
Marshall Islands, the
Solomon Islands and
Fiji
Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...
,
Ryukyu Islands; off Australia (
New South Wales,
Northern Territory,
Queensland,
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.
* Kiener, L.C. 1845. Spécies général et Iconographie des coquilles vivantes, comprenant la collection du Muséum d'histoire Naturelle de Paris, la collection de Lamarck, celle du Prince Massena (appartenant maintenant a M. le Baron B. Delessert) et les découvertes récentes des voyageurs. Paris : Rousseau et Baillière Vol. 2.
* Sowerby, G.B. (2nd) 1857. ''Thesaurus Conchyliorum''. Vol. 3 pp. 16–20.
* Nevill, G. & Nevill, H. 1875. ''Descriptions of new marine Mollusca from the Indian Ocean''. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal n.s. 44(2): 83–104, pls 7, 8
* Oostingh, C.H. 1925. ''Report on a collection of recent shells from Obi and Halmahera, Molluccas.'' Mededeelingen van de Landbouwhoogeschool te Wageningen 29(1): 1–362
* Habe, T. 1964. ''Shells of the Western Pacific in color''. Osaka : Hoikusha Vol. 2 233 pp., 66 pls.
* 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.
* Filmer R.M. (2001).'' A Catalogue of Nomenclature and Taxonomy in the Living Conidae 1758 – 1998''. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden. 388pp.
* Tucker J.K. (2009). ''Recent cone species database''. September 4, 2009 Edition
* 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 musicus
musicus
Gastropods described in 1792