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
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Mollusca
Class:
Gastropoda
(unranked):
clade Heterobranchia
clade Euthyneura
clade Panpulmonata
clade Eupulmonata
clade Stylommatophora
informal group Sigmurethra
clade limacoid clade
Superfamily:
Gastrodontoidea
Family:
Gastrodontidae
Genus:
Zonitoides
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]

  1. 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.
  2. "Species summary for Zonitoides excavatus". AnimalBase, last modified 28 January 2010, accessed 4 September 2010.
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