''Conus edaphus'' is a species of

sea snail Sea snails are slow-moving marine (ocean), marine gastropod Mollusca, molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the Taxonomic classification, taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguishe ...

, a marine

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...

in the family Conidae, the cone snails, cone shells or cones.Bouchet, P. (2015). Conus edaphus. In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=429933 on 2015-09-15 These snails are

predatory Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...

and

venomous Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a sti ...

. They are capable of

stinging Sting may refer to: * Stinger or sting, a structure of an animal to inject venom, or the injury produced by a stinger * Irritating hairs or prickles of a stinging plant, or the plant itself Fictional characters and entities * Sting (Middle-ear ...

humans.

Description

The size of the shell varies between 25 mm and 82 mm. (Original description) The small, short, stout, solid shell has a short acute

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. Spire ...

, rounded shoulder, and slightly convex sides. The

protoconch A protoconch (meaning first or earliest or original shell) is an embryonic or larval shell which occurs in some classes of molluscs, e.g., the initial chamber of an ammonite or the larval shell of a gastropod. In older texts it is also called " ...

consists of 2½ translucent whitish rounded

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). In nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral diagra ...

s with a dimple at the

apex The apex is the highest point of something. The word may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional entities * Apex (comics) A-Bomb Abomination Absorbing Man Abraxas Abyss Abyss is the name of two characters appearing in Ameri ...

. Of the remaining 8½ whorls the earlier five have the shoulder irregularly, obscurely, minutely beaded. The slope from the protoconch to the shoulder of the

body whorl The body whorl is part of the morphology (biology), morphology of the gastropod shell, 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 ...

is slightly concave. The fasciole between the shoulder and the suture behind it is depressed, with two strong spiral sulci running in it, the interspaces rather tumid. The coloration of the shell is peculiar. The pattern recalls '' Conus taeniatus'' and Conus tessulatus. The ground is a subtranslucent waxen white. Between the shoulder and the

siphonal canal The siphonal canal is an anatomical feature of the shells of certain groups of sea snails within the clade Neogastropoda. Some sea marine gastropods have a soft tubular anterior extension of the mantle called a siphon through which water i ...

there are about sixteen subequal, rectangularly articulated, spiral bands separated by narrower spaces of the ground color. The articulations are vermilion or orange red and opaque white alternately. On the spire are nearly a dozen radiating orange or vermilion flammules. The interior of the

aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...

is rosy white, the region about the canal deep rose color. The only

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

on the sides of the shell consists of about six equidistant channeled sulci, growing wider anteriorly until the siphonal canal is reached, and a few smaller striae on the siphonal fasciole. The aperture is narrow, parallel-sided, with a straight outer

lip The lips are a horizontal pair of soft appendages attached to the jaws and are the most visible part of the mouth of many animals, including humans. Mammal lips are soft, movable and serve to facilitate the ingestion of food (e.g. sucklin ...

, the anterior and posterior sinuses moderately deep.W.H. Dall, Summary of the shells of the genus Conus from the Pacific coast of Americain the U. S. National Museum; Proceedings of the United States National Museum. vol 38 (1910)

Distribution

This marine species occurs from the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California (), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Vermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja California peninsula from ...

, Mexico to

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

References

* Tenorio M.J., Tucker J.K. & Chaney H.W. (2012) ''The families Conilithidae and Conidae. The cones of the Eastern Pacific.'' In: G.T. Poppe & K. Groh (eds), A conchological iconography. Hackenheim: Conchbooks.
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

To World Register of Marine Species

Cone Shells - Knights of the Sea
* edaphus Gastropods described in 1910 {{Conus-stub