Conus marmoreus | |
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A live Conus marmoreus feeding on Cypraea caputserpensis. | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Gastropoda |
(unranked): | clade Caenogastropoda clade Hypsogastropoda clade Neogastropoda |
Superfamily: | Conoidea |
Family: | Conidae |
Genus: | Conus |
Species: | C. marmoreus |
Binomial name | |
Conus marmoreus Linnaeus, 1758 [1] |
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Synonyms[2] | |
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Conus marmoreus, common name the "marbled cone", is a species of predatory sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Conidae, the cone snails, cone shells or cones. This is a species which is believed to feed mostly on marine molluscs including other cone snails.[3] [2]
This snail is venomous, like all cone snails. However it is significantly less venomous than other cone snails, especially the fish-eating species, and poses no danger to humans.[4][5]
There is one subspecies: Conus marmoreus bandanus Lamarck
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This species occurs in the Indian Ocean along Chagos and Madagascar, in the Bay of Bengal along India; in the western part of the Pacific Ocean to Fiji and the Marshall Islands. .
The size of an adult shell can vary between 30 mm and 150 mm. In this species, the shell color can range from black with white dots, to orange with white reticulations, so arranged as to expose the white in rounded triangular large spots. The aperture is white or light pink.[6]