blackice once bubbled...
Just to be clear, I didn't want to change anything about the cycle of nature. And if the moving of a TT causes any change than I disagree with it. And from what the post said I thought the TT was fine and ok after the attack on the COT. Is this wrong? Do TT's dies after attack like bee's?
Blackice,
Chris may have been referring to the over-collecting by tropical nations for collectors in the ornamental shell trade. The shell is a desirable collectors item and Shinto priests in some area of Japan still use the Tritons trumpet as its namesake implies in their services.
Many people believe it is the scarcity of the Tritons trumpet that leads to COT outbreaks. Although this has not been proven conclusively, the best policy is to observe and take photographs only. If you absolutely must handle the Triton, replace it where it was found.
The Tritons trumpet is a fair sized mollusk with a large muscular foot. Once it finds a COT, it will use the foot to restrain the COT and rather than sting, it uses its radula the cutting and scraping organ used by gastropods to prepare their prey for eating to slice into the COT. It then inserts its proboscis and dines on the soft tissue of the COT. After digesting, the Triton regurgitates spines and other skeletal material. A large C. tritonis may consume up to three COTs a month.
The radula is peculiar to molluscs, and usually is a conveyor-like belt with numerous teeth to do its work. The radular teeth are used by taxonomists to differentiate species, and in some families such as
Conus (Cone shells), the teeth are modified, to form a barbed hollow dart that is attached to the proboscis. Cone shells use their proboscis to inject the dart into prey and a fast acting neurotoxin known as a conotoxin is then injected. The subdued prey is then drawn into the proboscis and digested. The spent radular dart is ejected with non-digested material and the next is readied for action. The venom from some cone shells such as
C. textile and
C. geographus has been implicated in injuries and death. The toxin also shows promise for medical applications such as pain moderation.
tj
