Charonia tritonis

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Charonia tritonis
A shell of Charonia tritonis with its operculum in place in the aperture
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
(unranked): clade Caenogastropoda
clade Hypsogastropoda
clade Littorinimorpha
Superfamily: Tonnoidea
Family: Ranellidae
Subfamily: Cymatiinae
Genus: Charonia
Species: C. tritonis
Trinomial name
Charonia tritonis
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Charonia tritonis, common name Triton's trumpet, is a species of very large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Ranellidae, the tritons.

Also see Charonia or Triton (mollusk).

Distribution

This species is found throughout the Indo-Pacific oceans, Red Sea included. [1]

Two views of a shell of Charonia tritonis.

Human use

The shell is well known as a decorative object, and is sometimes modified for use as a trumpet (such as the Japanese horagai).

C. tritonis is one of the few animals that feeds on the crown-of-thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci. Occasional plagues of this large and destructive starfish have killed extensive areas of coral on the Great Barrier Reef of Australia and the western Pacific reefs. There has been much debate on whether such plagues are natural or are caused by over-fishing of the few mollusks and fish that can eat this starfish. In 1994, Australia proposed that Charonia tritonis should be put on the CITES list, thereby attempting to protect the species.

Because of a lack of trade data concerning this seashell, the Berne Criteria from CITES were not met and the proposal was consequently withdrawn. While this species may be protected in Australia it can be legally traded and is found for sale in almost every shell shop in the world and on the Internet.

References

  1. ↑ http://eol.org/pages/403845/details#distribution

External links

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