|
| The families of non-marine molluscs of Britain and Ireland (slugs, snails and mussels) |
Morphology. Snails, with a conspicuous, spiral, univalve shell.
The animal with two pairs of tentacles. Eyes at the tips of the posterior tentacles.
The shell inoperculate; rising-spiral; 8.5–10 whorled; typically dextral; higher than wide; 6–8.5(–11) mm high; 2.3–2.8 mm wide; height about 2.76 x the width; high-spired and tapered gradually from the body whorl. The height of the spire about 0.64 x that of the shell. The spire fairly acute. The shell fusiform, or tear-shaped; rather shallowly sutured. The body whorl moderately convex. The whorls of the spire feebly convex to moderately convex. The whorls neither shouldered nor keeled. The shell conspicuously and regularly striated across the whorls (with very regular, fine ribbing). The aperture bearing teeth (usually with about 9 teeth). The shell without an umbilicus (?). The shell fairly thick-lipped (and deflected); opaque; brown; plain.
General biology, ecology. Terrestrial. In dry, stony situations, mainly on chalk or limestone.
Hermaphrodite.
Classification. Gastropoda; Pulmonata.
Representation in Britain and Ireland. Abida (1).
Illustrations. • Abida secale, with Clausiliidae, Cochlicopidae, Enidae, Ferussaciidae and Pupillidae (Ellis). CHONDRINIDAE. 8–9, Abida secale (Draparnaud), "Large Chrysalis Snail", 6.0–8.5 mm. PUPILLIDAE. 3–4, Pupilla muscorum (L.), "Moss Chrysalis Snail", 3–4 mm. 5–6, Lauria cylindracea (da Costa), "Common Chrysalis Snail", 3.0–4.4 mm. 7, Leiostyla anglica (Wood), "English Chrysalis Snail", 3.0–3.7 mm. CLAUSILIIDAE. 10, Macrogastra rolphii (Turton), "Rolph's Door Snail", 11–14 mm. 11, Clausilia bidentata (Ström), "Common Door Snail", or "Two-toothed Door Snail". 12, Clausilia dubia Draparnaud, "Craven Door Snail, 11–14(-16) mm. 13, Balea biplicata (Montagu), "Thames Door Snail", 16–18 mm. 14, Cochlodina laminata (Montagu), "Plaited Door Snail", 15–17 mm. 15, Balea perversa (L.), "Tree Snail", 8–10 mm. ENIDAE. 16, Ena montana (Draparnaud), "Mountain Bulin", 14–17 mm.; 17–18, Ena obscura (Müller), "Lesser Bulin", 8.5–9.0 mm. COCHLICOPIDAE. 22–23, Cochlicopa lubrica (Müller), "Slippery Moss Snail", 5–7 mm. 26–27, Azeca goodalli (Férussac), "Three-toothed Moss Snail", 5.5–7.0 mm. FERUSSACIIDAE. 28, Cecilioides acicula (Müller), "Blind Snail" or "Agate Snail", 4.5–5.5 mm. From Ellis (1926); all displayed at the same enlargement, to assist comparisons. • Abida secale, with Enidae, Pupillidae and Vertiginidae (Adams). ENIDAE. 8, Ena montana (Draparnaud), "Mountain Bulin"; 9, Ena obscura (Müller), "Lesser Bulin". CHONDRINIDAE. 10, Abida secale (Draparnaud), "Large Chrysalis Snail". PUPILLIDAE. 11, Leiostyla anglica (Wood), "English Chrysalis Snail"; 12, Lauria cylindracea (Da Costa), "Common Chrysalis Snail"; 13, Pupilla muscorum (Linn.), "Moss Chrysalis Snail". VERTIGINIDAE. 14, Vertigo antivertigo (Draparnaud), "Marsh Whorl Snail"; 15, Vertigo moulinsiana (Dupuy), "Des Moulins’ Whorl Snail"; 16, Vertigo pygmaea (Draparnaud), "Common Whorl Snail"; 17, Vertigo alpestris Alder, " Mountain Whorl Snail"; 18, Vertigo substriata (Jeffreys), "Striated Whorl Snail"; 19, Vertigo pusilla (Müller), "Wall Whorl Snail, Wry-necked Whorl Snail"; Vertigo angustior Jeffreys, " Narrow-mouthed Whorl Snail". 21, Columella edulenta agg., i.e. C. edulenta (Draparnaud) or C. aspersa Waldén, "Toothless Chrysalis Snail". 22, cf. Truncatellina sp. (labelled by Adams Vertigo minutissima Hartmann, a name not yet located elsewhere. His illustration, morphological description, and the distribution he gave suggest an amalgam of Truncatellina cylindrica and T.callicratis, only recently distinguished from one another at specific level.). From Adams (1890).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2005 onwards. The families of non-marine molluscs of Britain and Ireland (slugs, snails and mussels). Version: 5th August 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
