Trochulus hispidus

Trochulus hispidus, previously known as Trichia hispida, common name, the "hairy snail", is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Hygromiidae, the hairy snails and their allies.

Trochulus hispidus
A live individual of Trochulus hispidus (an older adult with most of the hairs worn off of the shell)
Five views of a shell of Trochulus hispidus

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Mollusca
Class:
Gastropoda
(unranked):
clade Heterobranchia
clade Euthyneura
clade Panpulmonata
clade Eupulmonata
clade Stylommatophora
informal group Sigmurethra
Superfamily:
Helicoidea
Family:
Hygromiidae
Subfamily:
Hygromiinae
Tribe:
Trochulini
Genus:
Trochulus
Species:
T. hispida
Binomial name
Trochulus hispidus
(Linnaeus, 1758)[2]
Synonyms[3]

Trichia hispida
Trochulus sericeus (Draparnaud, 1801)[4]
Trichia sericea (Draparnaud, 1801)

Distribution

This species occurs in a number of European countries and islands including:

Western Europe:

Northern Europe:

  • Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland[1]

Central Europe:

Southern Europe:

  • Andorra, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria[1]

Eastern Europe:

  • Moldova
  • Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
  • Ukraine[5]
  • Russian Federation (Kaliningrad)[1]

Description

The 3-6 x 5-11 mm shell has 5-6 moderately convex whorls which are rounded or very slightly keeled at the periphery. The aperture has a thin white lip inside. The umbilicus is open and usually wide at 1/8-1/4 of shell diameter. In colour the shell is brown to cream, sometimes with a light band at the periphery. The periostracum is irregularly striated, and densely covered with short (0.2-0.3 mm), curved hairs. These hairs usually remain in the umbilicus if worn away from the rest of the shell. Lost hairs leave pronounced scars.[6]

The animal is brownish grey with a darker anterior part.[6]

Scanning electron micrograph of the love dart of Trochulus hispidus, Upper image is lateral view - scale bar 500 μm (0.5 mm). Lower image is a cross-section near the base - scale bar 50 μm.

Anatomy

This species of snail creates and uses love darts before mating. The love dart of this species is thorn-shaped.

Shepeleva (2014) studied eyes of Trochulus hispidus.[7]

Ecology

The size of the egg is 1.5 mm.[8]

A hairy snail was found in the plumage of a great tit (Parus major) wintering in southwestern Poland in 2010. This passerine was the smallest bird species reported to carry a gastropod.[9]

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References
  1. Pall-Gergely B. (2013). "Trochulus hispidus". In: IUCN 2014. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.1. <http://www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 02 July 2014.
  2. Linnaeus C. 1758. Systema naturae per regna tria naturæ, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata. pp. [1-4], 1-824. Holmiae. (Salvius).
  3. Proćków, Małgorzata; Kuźnik-Kowalska, Elżbieta; Mackiewicz, Paweł (2017-08-01). "Phenotypic plasticity can explain evolution of sympatric polymorphism in the hairy snail Trochulus hispidus (Linnaeus, 1758)". Current Zoology. 63 (4): 389–402. doi:10.1093/cz/zow082. ISSN 1674-5507. PMC 5804198. PMID 29491999.
  4. Draparnaud J. P. R. 1801. Tableau des mollusques terrestres et fluviatiles de la France. pp. [1-2], 1-116. Montpellier, Paris. (Renaud; Bossange, Masson & Besson).
  5. Balashov I. & Gural-Sverlova N. 2012. An annotated checklist of the terrestrial molluscs of Ukraine. Journal of Conchology. 41 (1): 91-109.
  6. "Species summary for Trochulus hispidus". AnimalBase, last modified 4 January 2014, accessed 28 June 2014.
  7. (in Russian) Shepeleva I. P. (2014). "Сравнительный анализ камерных глаз брюхоногих легочных моллюсков Trochulus hispidus (Linnaeus, 1758) из Южной Швеции и Калининградской области (Stylommatophora, Hygromiidae). A comparative analysis of the camera eyes of gastropod pulmonate mollusk Trochulus hispidus (Linnaeus, 1758) from the South Sweden and Kaliningrad Region (Stylommatophora, Hygromiidae)". Ruthenica 24(2): 123-127 PDF.
  8. Heller J.: Life History Strategies. in Barker G. M. (ed.): The biology of terrestrial molluscs. CABI Publishing, Oxon, UK, 2001, ISBN 0-85199-318-4. 1-146, cited page: 428.
  9. Rusiecki S. & Rusiecka A. 2013. Hairy snail Trochulus hispidus (Linnaeus, 1758) in flight - a note on avian dispersal of snails. Folia Malacologica 21(2):111-112.

Further reading
  • Dépraz A., Hausser J. & Pfenninger M. (2009). "A species delimitation approach in the Trochulus sericeus/hispidus complex reveals two cryptic species within a sharp contact zone". BMC Evolutionary Biology 2009(9): 171. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-9-171
  • Kruckenhauser L., Duda M., Bartel D., Sattmann H., Harl J., Kirchner S. & Haring E. (2014). "Paraphyly and budding speciation in the hairy snail (Pulmonata, Hygromiidae)". Zoologica Scripta, 43(3): 273-288. doi:10.1111/zsc.12046.
  • Proćków M. & Kuźnik-Kowalska E. (2016). "Major fitness components in life history of euryoecious land snail Trochulus hispidus (Linnaeus, 1758)(Gastropoda: Hygromiidae)". Folia Malacologica 24: 179-184. doi:10.12657/folmal.024.015. PDF
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