ABSTRACT
Cone snails are widely distributed marine mollusks of the family Conidae of about 500-700 species (Olivera and Teichert 2007) and a half of species living in the Indo-Pacic region (Figure 8.1) (Rockel et al. 1995). These snails have a highly evolved apparatus for hunting prey. This venom system consists of a venom bulb connected to a long duct that opens into the pharynx. The role of the bulb is still unclear, while the venom is produced and matures in the venom duct. The size of the venom bulb and the length of the venom duct are different from species to species. For injecting venom into the prey, the Conus snails develop teeth inside the radular sac composed of two parts, the long arm where the teeth develop and the short arm where the teeth are ready to use. Upon contact with prey, a tooth is forcibly launched into the victim through the long proboscis and the venom is injected through the channel inside the hollow tooth (Marshall et al. 2002, Terlau and Olivera 2004). In a single attack, the cone snail can launch a few teeth. This property of prey capture of cone snails may be unique at the very high level of evolution (Figure 8.2).
