Paul Callomon wrote:
>
> > P.S. Now, this qeustion is for all on the conch-l. Is Conus tinianus a
> > dangerous species? It seems to have a wide
> > aperture to me.
> Freeze your hand down to the temperature of the surrounding water, coat it
> with fish oil, sit the C. tinianus on your palm and wait 20-30 minutes,
> gently wiggling your pinkie. When the mollusc extends its proboscis, wiggle
> a bit faster. With any luck, it will harpoon your finger and you will find
> out. This is about as easy as it is to be stung by a Cone.
 
Unless your'e the kind of collector who occasionally puts shells in a
pocket. I have heard of folks being stung by cones and some other shells
with names I don't recall. Does anyone have a list of snails that might
inflict a sting?? I had heard of some species of snail that had a mild
sting but caused a pretty good case of novacaine like numbness. What
about other shelling hazards?  I learned to do the "sand shuffle" after
stepping on a stingray (some of the worst pain I've ever felt!) in the
walking through the eel grass at DeSoto Park in the Clearwater/Tampa Bay
area.  A warning might have helped. That would be an interesting thread,
let's persue that rather than PC's vs Macs. Michael, Sunrise, FL