Cone snails seduce prey with pheromones

Cone snails are a group of highly venomous marine snails. Their shells are beautiful, but they pack a powerful neurotoxic punch: some members of this family are so poisonous that they can easily kill a person, and often a sting provokes a sensation of profound fear in the victim. But one species of cone snail, calledConus imperialis, produces a very different reaction in the worms they hunt. This snail has a venom cocktail that includes pheromones: it uses similar chemicals to the ones the worms give off when mating. Why make a worm aphrodisiac? And how do you figure that out in the first place? Phil Sansom spoke to Joshua Torres from the University of Copenhagen about these strange creatures…