Snorkeling about in the Amami Islands, I once happened on the remains of a Conus striatus that had apparently been hit by a mantis shrimp. Reassembling the fragments showed that a hole had been blasted right through from a point just by the aperture to the dorsum, exploding the shell. The clue was that the fracture edges on the dorsum showed bursting outwards, not crushing inwards (as would be the case if it had been crushed by a lobster, for example).
Remember that Conus venoms don't work on crustaceans, who happily crush and munch even the most lethal species.


Paul Callomon
Collections Manager in Malacology, Invertebrate Paleontology and General Invertebrates
Academy of Natural Sciences
1900 Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19103-1195, USA
[log in to unmask]
Tel. 215-405-5096

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