Strombus
Encyclopedia
Strombus, common name
the true conchs, is a genus
of medium to large sea snail
s with an operculum
, marine
gastropod mollusks in the family
Strombidae
, the true conchs and their immediate relatives.
The genus Strombus was named by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. There were around 50 living species recognized, which vary in size from fairly small to very large. Six species live in the greater Caribbean
region, including the Queen Conch, and the West Indian Fighting Conch, Strombus pugilis
. However, since 2006, many species have now been assigned to discrete genera. These new genera are however not yet found in most textbooks, collector guides, etc.
Worldwide, several of the larger species are economically important as food sources; these include the endangered queen conch or pink conch Strombus gigas (now usually known as Eustrombus gigas or Lobatus gigas) which very rarely also produces a pink, gem quality pearl
.
In the geological past, a much larger number of species of Strombus existed. Of the living species, most are in the Indian
and Pacific Ocean
s.
Many species of true conchs live on sandy bottoms among beds of sea grass in tropical waters. They eat algae
and have a claw-shaped operculum
.
. Again, as is normally the case in many gastropods, this spiral shell growth is usually right-handed, but on very rare occasions it can be left-handed.
True conches have long eye stalks, with colorful ring-marked eyes at the tips. The shell has a long and narrow aperture, and a short siphonal canal
, with another indentation near the anterior end called a stromboid notch. This notch is where one of the two eye stalks protrudes from the shell.
The true conch has a foot ending in a pointed, sickle-shaped, operculum
which can be dug into the substrate as part of an unusual "leaping" locomotion.
True conches grow a flared lip on their shells only upon reaching sexual maturity
.This is called an alated outer lip or alation. Animals which are harvested by fishermen before they reach this stage are juveniles, and have not had a chance to reproduce.
Conches lay eggs
in long strands: the eggs are contained in twisted gelatinous tubes. Strombus moves with a leaping motion.
through which the animal may protrude one of its stalked eyes.
based on sequences of nuclear histone H3
gene and mitochondrial cytochrome-c oxidase I
(COI) gene showing showing phylogenic relations of (32 analyzed) species that used to belong to the genus Strombus and Lambis
:
of sea snails used to comprise about 50 species, 38 of them occurring in the Indo-Pacific
region. Species within the genus Strombus include:
Species brought into synonymy :
Common name
A common name of a taxon or organism is a name in general use within a community; it is often contrasted with the scientific name for the same organism...
the true conchs, is a genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of medium to large sea snail
Snail
Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...
s with an operculum
Operculum (gastropod)
The operculum, meaning little lid, is a corneous or calcareous anatomical structure which exists in many groups of sea snails and freshwater snails, and also in a few groups of land snails...
, marine
Marine (ocean)
Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...
gastropod mollusks in the family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Strombidae
Strombidae
Strombidae, commonly known as the true conchs, is a taxonomic family of medium-sized to very large sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Stromboidea....
, the true conchs and their immediate relatives.
The genus Strombus was named by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. There were around 50 living species recognized, which vary in size from fairly small to very large. Six species live in the greater Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
region, including the Queen Conch, and the West Indian Fighting Conch, Strombus pugilis
Strombus pugilis
Strombus pugilis, common names the fighting conch, or the West Indian fighting conch, is a species of medium to large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Strombidae, the true conchs....
. However, since 2006, many species have now been assigned to discrete genera. These new genera are however not yet found in most textbooks, collector guides, etc.
Worldwide, several of the larger species are economically important as food sources; these include the endangered queen conch or pink conch Strombus gigas (now usually known as Eustrombus gigas or Lobatus gigas) which very rarely also produces a pink, gem quality pearl
Pearl
A pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is made up of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other...
.
In the geological past, a much larger number of species of Strombus existed. Of the living species, most are in the Indian
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
and Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
s.
Many species of true conchs live on sandy bottoms among beds of sea grass in tropical waters. They eat algae
Algae
Algae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms, ranging from unicellular to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelps that grow to 65 meters in length. They are photosynthetic like plants, and "simple" because their tissues are not organized into the many...
and have a claw-shaped operculum
Operculum (gastropod)
The operculum, meaning little lid, is a corneous or calcareous anatomical structure which exists in many groups of sea snails and freshwater snails, and also in a few groups of land snails...
.
Anatomy
Like almost all shelled gastropods, conches have spirally constructed shellsGastropod shell
The gastropod shell is a shell which is part of the body of a gastropod or snail, one kind of mollusc. The gastropod shell is an external skeleton or exoskeleton, which serves not only for muscle attachment, but also for protection from predators and from mechanical damage...
. Again, as is normally the case in many gastropods, this spiral shell growth is usually right-handed, but on very rare occasions it can be left-handed.
True conches have long eye stalks, with colorful ring-marked eyes at the tips. The shell has a long and narrow aperture, and a short siphonal canal
Siphonal canal
Some sea marine gastropods have a soft tubular anterior extension of the mantle called a siphon through which water is drawn into the mantle cavity and over the gill and which serves as a chemoreceptor to locate food. In many carnivorous snails, where the siphon is particularly long, the structure...
, with another indentation near the anterior end called a stromboid notch. This notch is where one of the two eye stalks protrudes from the shell.
The true conch has a foot ending in a pointed, sickle-shaped, operculum
Operculum (gastropod)
The operculum, meaning little lid, is a corneous or calcareous anatomical structure which exists in many groups of sea snails and freshwater snails, and also in a few groups of land snails...
which can be dug into the substrate as part of an unusual "leaping" locomotion.
True conches grow a flared lip on their shells only upon reaching sexual maturity
Sexual maturity
Sexual maturity is the age or stage when an organism can reproduce. It is sometimes considered synonymous with adulthood, though the two are distinct...
.This is called an alated outer lip or alation. Animals which are harvested by fishermen before they reach this stage are juveniles, and have not had a chance to reproduce.
Conches lay eggs
Egg (biology)
An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...
in long strands: the eggs are contained in twisted gelatinous tubes. Strombus moves with a leaping motion.
Shell description
Strombus shells have a flaring outer lip with a notch near the anterior end called the stromboid notchStromboid notch
The stromboid notch is an anatomical feature which is found in the shell of one taxonomic family of medium sized to large sea snails, the conches....
through which the animal may protrude one of its stalked eyes.
Cladogram
A cladogramCladogram
A cladogram is a diagram used in cladistics which shows ancestral relations between organisms, to represent the evolutionary tree of life. Although traditionally such cladograms were generated largely on the basis of morphological characters, DNA and RNA sequencing data and computational...
based on sequences of nuclear histone H3
Histone H3
Histone H3 is one of the five main histone proteins involved in the structure of chromatin in eukaryotic cells. Featuring a main globular domain and a long N-terminal tail, H3 is involved with the structure of the nucleosomes of the 'beads on a string' structure...
gene and mitochondrial cytochrome-c oxidase I
Main subunit of cytochrome c oxidase
Cytochrome C and Quinol oxidase polypeptide I is main subunit of cytochrome c oxidase complex.Cytochrome c oxidase is a key enzyme in aerobic metabolism. Proton pumping heme-copper oxidases represent the terminal, energy-transfer enzymes of respiratory chains in prokaryotes and eukaryotes...
(COI) gene showing showing phylogenic relations of (32 analyzed) species that used to belong to the genus Strombus and Lambis
Lambis
Lambis is a genus of large sea snails sometimes known as spider conchs, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Strombidae, the true conch family...
:
Species
This genusGenus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of sea snails used to comprise about 50 species, 38 of them occurring in the Indo-Pacific
Indo-Pacific
The Indo-Pacific is a biogeographic region of the Earth's seas, comprising the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the seas connecting the two in the general area of Indonesia...
region. Species within the genus Strombus include:
- Strombus alatusStrombus alatusStrombus alatus, common name the "Florida fighting conch" is a species of medium-sized warm-water sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Strombidae, the true conchs.- Distribution :...
Gmelin, 1791 - Strombus graciliorStrombus graciliorStrombus gracilior, common names the Eastern Pacific Fighting Conch, or the Panama Fighting Conch, is a species of medium to large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Strombidae, the true conchs. -Description:...
G.B. Sowerby I, 1825 - Strombus pugilisStrombus pugilisStrombus pugilis, common names the fighting conch, or the West Indian fighting conch, is a species of medium to large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Strombidae, the true conchs....
Linnaeus, 1758
Species brought into synonymy :
- Strombus accipiter Dillwyn, 1817 : synonym of Lobatus costatus (Gmelin, 1791)
- Strombus aurisdianae Linnaeus, 1759 : synonym of Euprotomus aurisdianae (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Strombus bituberculatus Lamarck, 1822 : synonym of Lobatus raninus (Gmelin, 1791)
- Strombus bulla Röding, 1798 : synonym of Euprotomus bulla (Röding, 1798)
- Strombus canarium Linnaeus, 1758 : synonym of Laevistrombus canarium (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Strombus costatus aguayoi Jaume & del Valle, 1947 : synonym of Lobatus costatus (Gmelin, 1791)
- Strombus decorus (Röding, 1798) : synonym of Conomurex decorus (Röding, 1798)
- Strombus dehelensis : synonym of Conomurex fasciatus (Born, 1778)
- Strombus dentatus Linnaeus, 1758 : synonym of Tridentarius dentatus (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Strombus epidromis Linnaeus, 1758 : synonym of Labiostrombus epidromis (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Strombus erythrinus is a synonym for Canarium erythrinum Dillwyn, 1817
- Strombus fasciatus Born, 1778 : synonym of Persististrombus latus (Gmelin, 1791)
- Strombus fusiformis is a synonym for Canarium fusiforme Sowerby, 1842
- Strombus gallus Linnaeus, 1758 : synonym of Lobatus gallusLobatus gallusLobatus gallus, previously known as Strombus gallus, common name the rooster conch or rooster-tail conch, is a species of medium-sized sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Strombidae, the true conchs.-Distribution:...
(Linnaeus, 1758) - Strombus gibberulus Linnaeus, 1758 : synonym of Gibberulus gibberulus (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Strombus gigas is a synonym for Eustrombus gigas L., 1758
- Strombus guidoi Man in t'Veld & De Turck, 1998 : synonym of Laevistrombus canarium guidoi (Man in 't Veld & De Turck, 1998)
- Strombus goliath Schröter, 1805 : synonym of Lobatus goliath (Schröter, 1805)
- Strombus haemastoma Sowerby, 1842 : synonym of Canarium haemastoma (Sowerby II, 1842)
- Strombus hickeyi Willan, 2000 : synonym of Dolomena hickeyi (Willan, 2000)
- Strombus inermis Swainson, 1822 : synonym of Lobatus costatus (Gmelin, 1791)
- Strombus integer Swainson, 1823 : synonym of Lobatus costatus (Gmelin, 1791)
- Strombus jeffersonia Van Hyning, 1945 : synonym of Lobatus costatus (Gmelin, 1791)
- Strombus labiatus is a synonym for Canarium labiatum Röding, 1798
- Strombus labiosus Gray in Wood, 1828 : synonym of Dolomena labiosa (Wood, 1828)
- Strombus latus Gmelin, 1791 : synonym of Persististrombus latus (Gmelin, 1791)
- Strombus lentiginosus Linnaeus, 1758 : synonym of Lentigo lentiginosus (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Strombus listeri Gray, 1852 : synonym of Mirabilistrombus listeri (Gray, 1852)
- Strombus luhuanus Linnaeus, 1758 : synonym of Conomurex luhuanus (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Strombus magolecciai Macsotay & Villarroel, 2001 : synonym of Lobatus magolecciai (Macsotay & Campos, 2001)
- Strombus marginatus C. Linnaeus, 1758 : synonym of Margistrombus marginatus (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Strombus mutabilis Swainson, 1821 : synonym of Canarium mutabile (Swainson, 1821)
- Strombus oldi Emerson, 1965 : synonym of Tricornis oldi (Emerson, 1965)
- Strombus persicus (Swainson, 1821) : synonym of Conomurex persicus (Swainson, 1821)
- Strombus plicatus Röding, 1798 : synonym of Dolomena plicata (Röding, 1798)
- Strombus sinuatus Humphrey, 1786: synonym of Sinustrombus sinuatus ([Lightfoot], 1786)
- Strombus terebellatus Sowerby, 1842 : synonym of Terestrombus terebellatus (G.B. Sowerby II, 1842)
- Strombus tricornis (Humphrey, 1786) : synonym of Tricornis tricornis (Lightfoot, 1786)
- Strombus urceus Linnaeus, 1758 : synonym of Canarium urceus (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Strombus ustulatus (Schumacher, 1817) : synonym of Canarium urceus urseus (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Strombus variabilis Swainson, 1820 : synonym of Dolomena variabilis (Swainson, 1820)
- Strombus wilsoni Abbott, 1967 : synonym of Canarium wilsonorum (Abbott, 1967)