Terebra taurina is certainly the largest species of auger snail (family Terebridae) in the western Atlantic, reaching more than 180 mm (7 inches) in length. Its shell is robust, with a well-defined suture (the groove between adjacent whorls) and a color pattern of elongated brownish spots set against a cream-white background. Auger snails are predators, injecting a cocktail of toxins into their prey using their hypodermic-needle-like radular teeth, in the same manner as their cousins, the cone snails. The species has a broad geographic distribution, living from Florida throughout the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, to southern Brazil.
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