''Strombus pugilis'',

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

s the fighting conch and the West Indian fighting conch, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of medium to 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 Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Strombidae Strombidae, commonly known as the true conchs, is a taxonomic family of medium-sized to very large sea snails in the superfamily Stromboidea, and the Epifamily Neostromboidae. The term true conchs, being a common name, does not have an exact me ...

, the true

conch Conch () is a common name of a number of different medium-to-large-sized sea snails. Conch shells typically have a high spire and a noticeable siphonal canal (in other words, the shell comes to a noticeable point at both ends). In North Am ...

s. ''S. pugilis'' is similar in appearance to '' Strombus alatus'', the Florida fighting conch.

Shell description

The maximum recorded

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 ...

length is 110 mmWelch J. J. (2010). "The "Island Rule" and Deep-Sea Gastropods: Re-Examining the Evidence". '' PLoS ONE'' 5(1): e8776. . or up to 130 mm,Leal, J.H. (2002). Gastropods. p. 99-147. In: Carpenter, K.E. (ed.). [ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/y4160e/y4160e08.pdf The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 1: Introduction, molluscs, crustaceans, hagfishes, sharks, batoid fishes, and chimaeras.] FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5. 1600p. commonly to 90 mm. Like other species in the same genus, ''Strombus pugilis'' has a robust, somewhat heavy and solid shell, with a characteristic stromboid notch. It has a well-developed

body whorl The body whorl is part of the morphology of the shell in those gastropod mollusks that possess a coiled shell. The term is also sometimes used in a similar way to describe the shell of a cephalopod mollusk. In gastropods In gastropods, the b ...

and a short and pointed

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

. It presents 8 to 9

whorl A whorl ( or ) is an individual circle, oval, volution or equivalent in a whorled pattern, which consists of a spiral or multiple concentric objects (including circles, ovals and arcs). Whorls in nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral ...

s, each of them having a single row of subsutural spines, becoming larger towards the last whorl. These spines, however, may be less conspicuous or even absent in some populations. Its

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

is relatively long and slightly oblique. The posterior angle of the outer lip is distinct, projecting in the posterior direction in an erect fashion.Cervigón, F. ''et al''. (1993): FAO species identification sheets for fishery purposes. Field guide to the commercial marine and brackish-water resources of the northern coast of South America. Rome, FAO. 513 p. The operculum is sickle-shaped, similar to several other ''

Strombus ''Strombus'' is a genus of medium to large sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Strombidae, which comprises the true conchs and their immediate relatives. The genus ''Strombus'' was named by Swedish Naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 175 ...

'' snails. The shell color varies from salmon-pink, cream or yellow to light or strong orange, and the interior of the

is usually white. The anterior end presents a dark purple stain, which is one of the diagnostic characters of this species, and is absent in '' Strombus alatus''. This species is closely similar to '' Strombus alatus'', which has a more northerly range. ''Strombus alatus'' shells have less prominent subsutural spines and a slightly more projected outer lip. Some scientists have treated the two as distinct species; others as

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

. In an extensive study of the Stromboidea in 2005, Simone provisionally treated them as distinct species, but observed that "no spectacular morphological difference was found ndall related differences, even those of the genital system, can be regarded as extreme of variation of a single, wide distributed, variable species."

Distribution

''Strombus pugilis'' lives in

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

, southeastern

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

, and south to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Phylogeny

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to d ...

based on sequences of nuclear

histone H3 Histone H3 is one of the five main histones involved in the structure of chromatin in eukaryotic cells. Featuring a main globular domain and a long N-terminal tail, H3 is involved with the structure of the nucleosomes of the 'beads on a stri ...

gene and mitochondrial cytochrome-c oxidase I (COI) gene showing phylogenetic relationships of (32 analyzed) species in the genus ''Strombus'' and ''

Lambis ''Lambis'' is a genus of large sea snails sometimes known as spider conchs, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Strombidae, the true conch family.Bouchet, P.; Rosenberg, G. (2011)Lambis Röding, 1798 Accessed through: World Register of Ma ...

'', including ''Strombus pugilis'', was proposed by Latiolais ''et al'' (2006).Latiolais J. M., Taylor M. S., Roy K. & Hellberg M. E. (2006). "A molecular phylogenetic analysis of strombid gastropod morphological diversity". ''

Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of evolutionary biology and phylogenetics. The journal is edited by E.A. Zimmer. Indexing The journal is indexed in: *EMBiology *Journal Citation Reports *Scopus ...

'' 41: 436-444.
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In this hypothesis, ''Strombus pugilis'' and '' Strombus alatus'' apparently share a

common ancestor Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. All living beings are in fact descendants of a unique ancestor commonly referred to as the last universal comm ...

, and are possibly close related.

Ecology

Habitat

This sea snail lives on sandy and muddy bottoms, from the

intertidal zone The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of habitats with various species o ...

to depths between 2 and 10 m. The minimum recorded depth for this species is 0 m; the maximum recorded depth is 55 m.

Life cycle

During a long period in the initial stages of its development, the ''Strombus pugilis'' larvae feed mainly on

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) that are unable to propel themselves against a Ocean current, current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankt ...

. Studies indicate that some populations of ''Strombus pugilis'' may reproduce throughout the year.
Reproduction orgies have been observed, on silty sand at 8-10 m. depth,
with egg cases littering the bottom, and obvious copulation in progress across a fairly large area.

Feeding habits

''Strombus pugilis'' is known to be a

herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpart ...

, feeding on

plants Plants are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic eukaryotes of the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all curr ...

and

algae 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 mic ...

.Robertson, R. (1961). ''The feeding of Strombus and related herbivorous marine gastropods''. Natul. Nat. 343: 1-9

Human uses

The flesh of ''Strombus pugilis'' is edible. It is usually cooked by boiling, and is consumed by local fishermen. ''Strombus pugilis'' is used as a zootherapeutical product for the treatment of

sexual impotence Erectile dysfunction (ED), also called impotence, is the type of sexual dysfunction in which the Human penis, penis fails to become or stay Erection, erect during Human sexual activity, sexual activity. It is the most common sexual problem in ...

in the

traditional Brazilian medicine Traditional Brazilian medicine (Portuguese: Medicina indígena) includes many native South American elements, and imported African ones. It is predominantly used in areas where indigenous groups and African descendants reside, like in the northea ...

of the Northeast region of Brazil.Alves R. R. N. 2009. ''Fauna used in popular medicine in Northeast Brazil''.

Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine BioMed Central (BMC) is a United Kingdom-based, for-profit scientific open access publisher that produces over 250 scientific journals. All its journals are published online only. BioMed Central describes itself as the first and largest open a ...

2009, 5:1. . The species is incorrectly spelled in the reference as ''Strombus puginis''. The shell is commonly used as a decorative item and is sold in local markets as a souvenir.

References

* Rosenberg, G., F. Moretzsohn, and E. F. García. 2009. ''Gastropoda (Mollusca) of the Gulf of Mexico,'' pp. 579–699 in Felder, D.L. and D.K. Camp (eds.), Gulf of Mexico–Origins, Waters, and Biota. Biodiversity. Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas. {{DEFAULTSORT:Strombus Pugilis Strombidae Gastropods described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus