Fig. 4.

Milking of the molluscivorous cone snail C. marmoreus. A, A prey (left) is placed at the front end of a C. marmoreus specimen to induce extension of the proboscis. A centrifuge tube covered with parafilm and piece of external tissue from the foot of the prey is then presented at the tip of the extended proboscis. On contact, a radula is usually fired and venom injected into the collecting tube. A quick centrifugation is then carried out to pellet the droplets of venom to the bottom of the tube before storage at –20 ° C. B, Pool of crude injected venom from several specimens of C. marmoreus. C, The white color of the injected venom appears to be due to the presence of ∼ 25–30 μm long oval-shaped granules, as seen under an optical microscope (×40).