Conus catus

Case of Conus catus

The Cat cones or the Cat cone snail ( Conus catus) is a snail from the family of cone snails ( genus Conus ), who lives in the Indo-Pacific.

Features

The body handling the snail shell of Conus catus is bulbous to broadly conical, convex towards the thread. For adult snails the house reaches a length of 2.5 to 5.2 cm. The basic color of the housing, the drawing can vary, is white to bluish gray. The surface of the body intercourse may be yellowish brown, olive green, blackish brown or orange and red. On either side of the center there are sparse and small spots in the middle of a narrow spiral band running in the base color. The top Windungsumgänge are red, sometimes white to brown. The thread forms a flat cone. The periostracum is yellowish brown, smooth and can be translucent.

The top of the gray to pale brown foot is pale brown to blackish brown speckled front and darker. The sole is brown speckled or solid color and brighter at the ends. The white head is mottled with brown or lengthwise, front denser. The sensors are white. The siphon is white to gray and has brown spots.

Dissemination

The cats cone snail occurs to the Aldabra Atoll, Chagos, Madagascar and Mauritius, in Tanzania and KwaZulu-Natal and in the western Pacific Ocean to Hawaii and French Polynesia in the Indian Ocean. In the Red Sea and Oman before the cat cone is represented by the shape nigropunctatus.

Habitat

Cats cone snails live on rock ledges in the intertidal zone of the coast to 20 meters depth, or in coral reefs below the intertidal zone.

Food

Cats cone snails eat small fish that are killed using a harpoon with a toxic Radulazahn. The venom is deadly for fish and other vertebrates, but is neither on molluscs still on polychaetes.