---
title: Terebellum Conch (Terebellum terebellum)
scientific_name: Terebellum terebellum
common_name: Terebellum Conch
taxon: Prosobranchia
published: 2026-08-11T15:43:17.028Z
updated: 2026-08-11T17:46:25.330Z
tags: Terebellum Conch, Terebellum terebellum, Prosobranchia, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/molluscs/prosobranchia/terebellum-conch
---

# Terebellum Conch (*Terebellum terebellum*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Prosobranchia (*Prosobranchia*)
- **Size:** up to 6 cm
- **Depth:** 0-20 m
- **Diet:** Omnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Clean sand flats, buried just below the surface
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer, Gonochoric

## How to recognise it

- slim polished bullet-shaped shell, smooth and glossy with no sculpture
- pattern extremely variable: plain cream, spotted, streaked or banded brown
- square-cut opening at the front end of the shell
- shell to 6 cm

A polished bullet, slim and glossy with no sculpture at all, up to 6 cm (2.4 in). No two look alike: the same sand flat produces plain cream shells, brown-streaked shells, spotted shells and banded shells, all one species, which is why old collections list several names for it.

It lives buried just under the surface of clean sand, which explains the shape - a shell with nothing to catch on is a shell that sinks fast. The lack of ornament is not simplicity but specialization, and the same outline has been arrived at independently by olives, augers and other burrowing snails on the same flats.

It is also one of the few snails that swims. Threatened, it heaves itself out of the sand and flicks the rear of the foot hard enough to shoot backward through the water in a series of jerks - not far, and not gracefully, but far enough to break contact with a predator that was following a scent trail. Then it lands and disappears back into the sand within seconds.

## Also known as

- **English:** little auger, terebellum conch
- **German:** Kleine Bohrerschnecke
- **Russian:** Теребеллум

## Scientific synonyms

- *Conus terebellum* Linnaeus, 1758
- *Terebellum lineatum* Röding, 1798
- *Terebellum maculosum* A. Adams, 1848
- *Terebellum punctulatum* Röding, 1798
- *Terebellum subulatum* Lamarck, 1811
- *Terebellum terebellum f. lineatum* Röding, 1798
- *Terebellum terebellum f. punctulatum* Röding, 1798

## Range

Comoros, Eastern Africa & Madagascar, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mascarene Islands, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Persian Gulf, Seychelles, Tanzania

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/molluscs/prosobranchia/terebellum-conch)*
*Updated: August 11, 2026*