Zonitoides excavatus
Zonitoides excavatus is a European species of small, air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Gastrodontidae.
Zonitoides excavatus | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | |
Phylum: | |
Class: | |
(unranked): | clade Heterobranchia clade Euthyneura clade Panpulmonata clade Eupulmonata clade Stylommatophora informal group Sigmurethra clade limacoid clade |
Superfamily: | |
Family: | |
Genus: | |
Subgenus: | Zonitoides |
Species: | Z. excavatus |
Binomial name | |
Zonitoides excavatus ([[[Joshua Alder|Alder]], 1830])[1] | |
Synonyms | |
Helix excavata Alder, 1830 |
Distribution
Distribution of Zonitoides excavatus include:
- British Isles: Great Britain and Ireland. In Britain it restricted to a few regions, but frequent in the zones where it occurs (Cornwall, south of London, west Wales, Eastern, southwest and northwest Ireland, specifically Portman, Clonee, Clonakilty and Clare island, central England, southwest Scotland).[2]
- On the redlist in Ireland of species under threat, Endangered in Germany (2009).[2]
- Netherlands[2]
- Denmark[2]
- Belgium[2]
- northern France.[2]
Description
Zonitoides excavatus is smaller than Zonitoides nitidus.[2] The umbilicus is extremely wide and perspectivically open (as is the case in Discus rotundatus).[2] The shell is weakly brown, slightly transparent, with radial streaks.[2] The animal is dark.[2]
The width of the shell is 5.3–6 mm, and the height of the shell is 2.8-3.4 mm.[2]
Ecology
Zonitoides excavatus lives in leaf litter and under dead wood in old natural forests, sometimes also in swamps (western Ireland and western Great Britain).[2] It lives only on non-calcareous soils.[2] It tolerates some degree of human disturbance and replanting, but usually not in forest plantations.[2]
References
This article incorporates public domain text from the reference.[2]
- Alder J. (1830). "A catalogue of the land and fresh-water testaceous Mollusca found in the vicinity of Newcastle upon Tyne, with remarks". Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland and Durham 1(1): 26-41. London.
- "Species summary for Zonitoides excavatus". AnimalBase, last modified 28 January 2010, accessed 4 September 2010.