Toxic Tango III: Cone Shells

Toxic Tango III: Cone Shells

24×24 watercolor

I just completed the third painting in the Toxic Tango series! This one is Toxic Tango III: Cone Shells. Yes, these innocent looking beauties are all venomous. (The animals living inside the shells, of course.) Here’s a description from Wikipedia: “Because all Conus snails are venonous and capable of stinging humans, live ones should be handled with great care, or preferably, not at all. The species most dangerous to humans are the larger ones which prey on small bottom-dwelling fish; the smaller species mostly hunt and eat marine worms. Cone snails use a hypodernic-like modified radula tooth and a venom gland to attack and paralyze their prey before engulfing it. The tooth is sometimes likened to a dart or a harpoon. It is barbed and can be extended some distance from the mouth of the snail.”