Edentulina moreleti

Edentulina moreleti is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Streptaxidae.

Edentulina moreleti
An apertural view of a shell of the species
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Mollusca
Class:
Gastropoda
(unranked):
clade Heterobranchia clade Euthyneura
clade Panpulmonata
clade Eupulmonata
clade Stylommatophora
informal group Sigmurethra
Superfamily:
Streptaxoidea
Family:
Streptaxidae
Subfamily:
Orthogibbinae
Genus:
Edentulina
Species:
E. moreleti
Binomial name
Edentulina moreleti
(Adams, 1868)[1]
Synonyms[2]
  • Gibbus (Gibbulina) Moreleti Adams, 1868
  • Pupa Moreleti[3][4]
  • Ennea (Edentulina) Moreleti[5][6]
  • Ennea moreleti[7][8][9]

Distribution

Edentulina moreleti is endemic to the Seychelles.[2]

The type locality for this species is Silhouette Island.[2] It also occurs on Mahé.[2] Up to 1999 there were only 34 known specimens in collections.[2]

Description

The species gives live birth rather than laying eggs. The newborn snails are yellow in color.[10] Juvenile snails are also yellow with crimson tentacles.[10] Adult snails are dark brown,[10] but Martens (1898) described the body as red.[6]

The reproductive anatomy and radula have been described by J. Gerlach & A. C. van Bruggen (1999).[2] The formula of the radula is 29 + 1 + 29.[2] Salivary glands are bilobed.[2]

The color of the shell is a tan brown.[10] The width of the shell is 5.3-6.5 mm.[2] The height of the shell is 11.0-14.0 mm.[2] The shape of the shell is bulimoid.[2] The shell has 6.75-7.75 whorls.[2] There is no spiral sculpture on the shell.[2]

juvenile shell
subadult shell
adult shell

The only other species of Edentulina on the Seychelles is Edentulina dussumieri, which is the most abundant streptaxid snail there.[2][10] Edentulina moreleti is smaller than Edentulina dussumieri which is over 14 mm in shell height, and Edentulina dussumieri has spiral sculpture on the shell.[2]

Ecology

Edentulina moreleti inhabits habitats with high humidity and with lots of Dracaena reflexa plants.[10] The population density of this species is low: about 160 individuals at locality area of 2 ha.[10] Edentulina moreleti is ovo-viviparous.[10]

Edentulina moreleti is the only known herbivorous streptaxid.[10] Other Streptaxidae are carnivorous.[10] Edentulina moreleti probably feeds on algae and decomposing plants, that occur on leaves of Dracaena reflexa.[10] They can be fed with carrot, apple and decomposing leaves in captivity.[10]

gollark: Basically, I used osmarkslisp™ to implement a depth first search to find the optimal program to SIMD bubblemergesort a list of arbitrary geometrically distributed integers.
gollark: I finished my entry before the contest even began.
gollark: I don't think the languages are specified anywhere.
gollark: I mostly want an excuse to do stupid insane things.
gollark: What if CODE GUESSING 17259815?

References
  1. Adams H. (1868). "Descriptions of new species of shells collected by Geoffrey Nevill Esq., at Mauritius, the Isle of Bourbon, and the Seychelles". Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1868: 288-292. page 291.
  2. Gerlach J. & Bruggen A. C. van (1999). "Streptaxidae Mollusca: Gastropoda: Pulmonata) of the Seychelles Islands, western Indian Ocean". Zoologische Verhandelingen 328: 1-60. page 47. abstract, PDF.
  3. Pfeiffer L. G. C. (1841). Symbolae ad historiam Heliceorum 1: 1-88. Th. Fischer, Cassel. page 350, pl. 28 fig. 10.
  4. Nevill G. (1868). "Notes on some of the species of land Mollusca inhabiting Mauritius and the Seychelles". Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1868: 257-261.
  5. Martens E. von (1880). "Mollusken". In: Möbius K. (ed.) Beiträge zur Meeresfauna der Insel Mauritius und der Seychellen: 181-352. Gutmann, Berlin. page 205.
  6. Martens E. von & Wiegmann F. (1898). "Land- und Süsswasser-Mollusken der Seychellen nach den Sammlungen von Dr. Aug. Brauer". Mitteilungen aus der Zoologischen Sammlung des Museums für Naturkunde in Berlin 1: 1-94. page 8-13, plate 1, figure 11-14.
  7. Barnacle G. A. S. (1962). "The land and freshwater shells of the Seychelles group of islands (including the Amirantes, Coetivy, Farquhar, Cosmoledo and Aldabra)". J. Sey. Soc. 2: 53-57. page 54.
  8. Lionnet J. F. G. (1984). "Terrestrial testaceous molluscs". In: Stoddart D. R. (ed.) The biogeography and ecology of the Seychelles Islands: 239-244. W. Junk, The Hague. page 240
  9. Gerlach J. (1987). The land snails of Seychelles. A field guide. 1-44. Privately published, Weedon. page 9.
  10. Gerlach J. (2001). "Edentulina moreleti, the first herbivorous streptaxid (Gastropoda)". Phelsuma 9: 75. PDF.
  • Moellendorff O. von & Kobelt W. (1902-1904). "Die Raublungenschnecken (Agnatha). Erste Abtheilung: Rhytididae & Enneidae". Systematisches Conchylien-Cabinet 1, 12(B1): 1-362. Bauer & Raspe, Nuremberg. page 298, plate 33, figs 9-10.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.