Amboinagai (English spelling) geographer cone

A gastropod snail of the family Conidae in the class Gastropoda of the phylum Mollusca. Its Japanese name comes from the Indonesian island of Ambon. It is widely distributed from the Kii Peninsula south to the tropical western Pacific Ocean, and lives in shallow waters such as coral reefs. Its shell is 115 mm high and 55 mm in diameter, cylindrical and somewhat thin, with a row of low spines on the shoulder of the body layer. The shell surface is pale-white with a fine brown mesh pattern, which gives it its scientific name (Latin name) after a map. There are also three thick brown bands. When alive, it has a thick shell over it, with about 10 rows of hairs. The opening of the shell is wide and milky white. Its radula is hollow and harpoon-shaped, and is loaded with poison, which it uses to stab and kill fish before eating them. It is so poisonous that people who collect it have been stabbed to death by it, and in Okinawa it is also known as Habugai.

[Takashi Okutani]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

軟体動物門腹足綱イモガイ科の巻き貝。和名は、インドネシアのアンボイナ（アンボン）島に由来。紀伊半島以南から熱帯西太平洋にかけて広く分布し、サンゴ礁などの浅海にすむ。殻高115ミリメートル、殻径55ミリメートル、殻は円筒形でやや薄質、体層の肩には低いとげ列がある。殻表は蒼白(そうはく)色の地に褐色の細かい網目模様があり、これを地図になぞらえて学名（ラテン名）がついている。そのほか、太い褐色帯が3本ある。生時はこの上に厚い殻皮をかぶっていて、10列ぐらいの殻皮毛列がある。殻口は広く乳白色。歯舌は中空の銛(もり)状で中に毒が装填(そうてん)されていて、これで魚類を刺し殺して食べる。採集した人がこの貝に刺されて死ぬこともあるほど猛毒のため、沖縄ではハブガイという地方名もある。

［奥谷喬司］

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