336 



LOWER INVERTEBRATES. 



SuB-OeDER III. — ^TOXIGLOSSA. 



These animals are all predaceous and carnivorous, for which they are well adapted. 

 They have a strong proboscis, which can be extended some distance from the shell. 

 The lingual ribbon is armed with two rows of teeth, the middle or rhachidian series 

 being absent. The teeth are long and hollow, and it would appear that the animals 

 have the power to poison their prey. 



The largest family, and the one best known to collectors, is the Conidje, which 

 receives its name from the conical shape of the shell. The members are almost all 

 tropical or sub-tropical, the number of species and the brightness of the colors increas- 

 ing as we approach the equatorial regions. Notwithstanding their carnivorous propen- 

 sities they are apparently timorous, preferring to live in holes in the rocks and coral 

 reefs, and retiring within the shell at tlie approach of danger. They crawl in a slow, 

 sluggish manner, with their tentacles stretched straight out before them. The only 

 genus is Conus, of which about three hundred species are known, most of them being 

 inhabitants of the eastern seas, only about fifty being found in the troi:)ical waters of 

 America. The general appearance of the animal may be seen from our figure of one 



of an oriental species, Cotius 

 textilis. The eyes are near 

 the base of the tentacles, the 

 foot is narrow and long, and 

 furnished in the middle with 

 a large opening, the object 

 of which is frequently as- 

 serted to be the admission 

 of water to the circulatory 

 system. This connection of 

 the blood vessels with the ex- 

 ternal world has been lately 

 denied in any and all mol- 

 luscs, and apparently with 

 reason. Usually a small operculum is present, but not infrequently it is absent. The 

 shell is thick, cone-shaped, the spire short, aperture narrow, the outer 

 lip sharp and neither toothed. 



We have just referred to the fact that some, if not all, of the 

 Toxiglossa are poisonous, and the reader will doubtless pardon the 

 following quotation from the pages of Mr. Arthur Adams. Speaking 

 of Convs aulicus he snys, — " Its bite produces a venomed wound 

 accompanied by acute pain, and making a small, deep, triangular 

 mark, which is succeeded by a watery vescicle. At the little island 

 of Meyo, one of the Moluccas, near Ternate, Sir Edward Belcher was 

 bitten by one of these cones, which suddenly exserted its proboscis as 

 he took it out of the M^ater with his hand, and he compares the sensa- 

 tion he experienced to that produced by burning phosphorus under 

 the skin." In the South Sea Islands, Conus textilis and C. marmoreus are also con- 

 sidered as poisonous, though cases where their bite is fatal are rare and not well 

 authenticated. It is supposed that the teeth break off and are left in the wound. 



Fig. 422.— Conus textilis. 



Fig. 423. — Conus 

 marmoreus. 



