''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, ocean, marine Gastropoda, gastropod Mollusca, mollusks in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries. The term ''porcelain'' derives from the old Italian language, Italia ...

, a large

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 Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

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 Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

in the family

Cypraeidae Cypraeidae, commonly named the cowries ( cowry), is a taxonomic family of small to large sea snails. These are marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Cypraeoidea, the cowries and cowry allies. Shell description Cypraeidae have adult s ...

, 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 his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

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

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

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

type species In 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 species that contains the biological type specimen ...

of the genus ''

Cypraea ''Cypraea'' is a genus of medium-sized to large sea snails or cowries, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries. Species Species within the genus ''Cypraea'' include: * † '' Cypraea ficoides'' (Hutton, 1873) * '' Cypra ...

''.

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 Johnston Atoll is an unincorporated territory of the United States, currently administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Johnston Atoll is a National Wildlife Refuge and part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine Nation ...

, 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 ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

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 ''

'' 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 P ...

, and along the east coast of Africa including

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. 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 r ...

'',(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 marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

and various

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s, while juveniles eat

alga Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mi ...

e. This species is endangered in Singapore.

Diet

The

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

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

sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through t ...

s. Sponge species included

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

spp., Mycale parishii, M. grandis, Haliclona caerulea,

Halichondria coerulea ''Halichondria'' is a genus of sea sponges belonging to the family Halichondriidae. These are massive, amorphous sponges with clearly separated inner and outer skeletons consisting of bundles of spicules arranged in a seemingly random pattern. ...

, 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 Marine habitats are habitats that support 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 environmental a ...

by constraining invasive species in Hawaii.

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 north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

, shells of the tiger cowrie and the related panther cowrie, '' Cypraea pantherina'', have been unearthed at

Pompeii Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried ...

, the ancient Roman city near

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, 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 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...

who wrote extensively about seashells in his book Natural History and who died investigating the eruption of

Vesuvius Mount Vesuvius ( ; it, Vesuvio ; nap, 'O Vesuvio , also or ; la, Vesuvius , also , or ) is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples The Gulf of Naples (), also called the Bay of Naples, is a roughly 15-kilometer-wide (9 ...

. 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 and delivery, is the ending of pregnancy where one or more babies exits the internal environment of the mother via vaginal delivery or caesarean section. In 2019, there were about 140.11 million births globall ...

: 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. Some types of shoes or boots are typically worn over socks. In ancient times, socks were made from leather or matted animal hair. In the late ...

heels were stretched for

darning Darning is a sewing technique for repairing holes or worn areas in fabric or knitting using needle and thread alone. It is often done by hand, but it is also possible to darn with a sewing machine. Hand darning employs the darning stitch, a ...

, 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:Cypraea tigris 1.jpg, A living individual of ''Cypraea tigris'' 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 Gastropods described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Cypraeidae