conch, marine snail, of the subclass Prosobranchia (class Gastropoda), in which the outer whorl of the shell is broadly triangular in outline and has a wide lip, often jutting toward the apex. Conch meat is harvested and consumed by people in Caribbean countries. It is exported to the United States, Europe, and South America, and conch shells are coveted by shell collectors. Natural populations have been decimated by overharvesting, and thus there is considerable interest in developing techniques to raise conchs commercially.
True conchs are those of the family Strombidae. They feed on fine plant matter in warm waters. The queen conch (Strombus gigas), found from Florida to Brazil, has an attractive ornamental shell; the aperture, or opening into the first whorl in the shell, is pink and may be 30 cm (12 inches) long. Spider conchs, with prongs on the lip, belong to the genusLambis.
In the family Melongenidae are fulgur conchs (or whelks), of the genus Busycon; among these clam eaters are the channeled conch (B. canaliculatum) and the lightning conch (B. contrarium), both about 18 cm long and common on the Atlantic coast of the United States. Another melongenid is the Australian trumpet, or baler (Syrinx aruanus), which may be more than 60 cm long—the largest living snail. It is rivaled by the Florida horse conch (Pleuroploca gigantea), sometimes more than 50 cm long, in the family Fasciolariidae, which includes tulip conchs (Fasciolaria).