Conus lividus

Conus lividus
Five views of shell of Conus lividus Hwass in Bruguière, J.G., 1792
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Clade: Caenogastropoda
Clade: Hypsogastropoda
Clade: Neogastropoda
Superfamily: Conoidea
Family: Conidae
Genus: Conus
Species: C. lividus
Binomial name
Conus lividus
Hwass in Bruguiere, 1792 [1]
Synonyms[2]
  • Conus (Lividoconus) lividus Hwass in Bruguière, 1792 · accepted, alternate representation
  • Conus detritus Menke, K.T., 1830
  • Conus lividus var. detritus Menke, 1830
  • Conus plebejus Link, 1807
  • Conus primula Reeve, 1849
  • Conus virgo fasciata (f) Menke, K.T., 1828 (invalid: junior homonym of Conus fasciatus Schröter, 1803, and several others)
  • Cucullus monachos Röding, 1798
  • Lividoconus lividus (Hwass in Bruguière, 1792)

Conus lividus, common name the livid cone, is a species of sophisticated predatory sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Conidae, the cone snails, cone shells or cones.

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 an adult shell varies between 25 mm and 81 mm. The moderate spire is coronated, depressed conical. It shows prominent nodules on shoulders of the whorls. The lower half of the body whorl is distantly striated, and the striae sparsely granulous. The color of the shell is light yellowish or fawn, olivaceous to orange-brown. The tubercles of the spire and a band below the shoulder, as well as a single central band on the body whorl, are white. The aperture is narrow and purple with faint central, white band. The base and the interior are violaceous. The epidermis is somewhat tufted in distant revolving series.[3]

Distribution

This cone snail has a very wide distribution. It is found in the Red Sea, in the Indian Ocean off Aldabra, Chagos, Mascarene Basin, Mauritius, Mozambique, Tanzania and the West Coast of South Africa; in the entire Pacific Ocean.;[2] off Australia (New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia).

Habitat

This species can be found around rocks and coral reefs in shallow water.

References

  1. Bruguière, J. G., and Hwass, C. H., 1792. Cone. Encyclopédie Méthodique: Histoire Naturelle des Vers, 1: 586 -757
  2. 1 2 Conus lividus Bruguière, 1792. 28 July 2011. Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species.
  3. George Washington Tryon, Manual of Conchology vol. VI, p. 45; 1879
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