Mitra mitra

Present in the Red Sea and in the Indo-Pacific from eastern Africa to Hawaii and from Japan to Australia and to New Caledonia, the Mitra mitra spends the hours of the day buried in the sands up to 80 m of depth. In the night, guided by a particular olfactory organ, it goes to the surface and crawling on the bottom goes hunting sipunculids (Sipincula), invertebrates similar to worms, small gastropods and bivalves. Like all Mitridae has a violet poisonous liquid, harmless to man, that probably uses for defensive purposes. The elegant shell, looking almost smooth with a spiraled red dotting, can reach the 18 cm. The last spire is bigger than half of the shell © Giuseppe Mazza