Pionoconus: A Piscivorous Subgenus of Conus Gastropods

Alan Kohn showed that two cone-snail species-<i>Conus striatus</i> Linnaeus, 1758, and <i>Conus catus</i> Hwass, 1792-hunt fish as their primary prey. In the seven decades since then, it has been established that these two species belong to the subgenus <i>Pionoconus</i> Mörch, 1852, a well-defined lineage of <i>Conus</i> Linnaeus, 1758, and one of eight piscivorous cone-snail clades. In this review, an integrated multidisciplinary framework for the biology of <i>Pionoconus</i> is presented, based on the numerous research papers published since Kohn's seminal discovery. The molecular biology, phylogeny, biogeography, life history, and prey-capture strategy of <i>Pionoconus</i> are among the topics reviewed, along with more specialized subjects, e.g., human envenomation, culinary recipes, shell-collecting history, and biomedical applications. These illustrate the continuing impact of Kohn's scientific contributions.