| | 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 (with a short anterior pair, by contrast with the Vertiginidae). Eyes at the tips of the posterior tentacles.
The shell inoperculate; rising-spiral; 6–7 whorled; typically dextral; 3–4.4 mm in its maximum dimension; higher than wide; 3–4.4 mm high; 1.7–1.9 mm wide; height about 1.74–2.1 x the width. The height of the spire about 0.48–0.62 x that of the shell. The spire obtuse. The shell ovoid-symmetric; rather shallowly sutured to deeply 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 to not markedly striated across the whorls (with only feeble growth lines). The aperture bearing teeth (sometimes conspicuous, as in Leiostyla, often much reduced, but usually with at least an angular), or bearing calluses, or with neither teeth nor calluses (rarely). The columella folded. The shell with an umbilicus. The shell thick-lipped to thin-lipped (the mouth edge often deflected); thin and translucent to opaque; brown or horn-coloured, glossy or dull; plain.
General biology, ecology. Terrestrial. In diverse locations, moist or dry.
Hermaphrodite; viviparous (Lauria), or oviparous.
Classification. Gastropoda; Pulmonata.
Representation in Britain and Ireland. "Chrysalis snails": Lauria (2), Leiostyla (1), Pupilla (1).
Illustrations. • Lauria cylindracea, Leiostyla anglica and Pupilla muscorum, with Chondrinidae, Clausiliidae, Cochlicopidae, Enidae and Ferussaciidae (Ellis). 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. CHONDRINIDAE. 8–9, Abida secale (Draparnaud), "Large Chrysalis Snail", 6.0–8.5 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. • Pupilla muscorum (live animal), Lauria cylindracea, Leiostyla anglica (Reeve). PUPILLIDAE. 1, Pupilla muscorum (L.), "Moss Chrysalis Snail". 2, Lauria cylindracea (da Costa), "Common Chrysalis Snail". 3, From Reeve (1863), approximate scales added. • Lauria, Leiostyla and Pupilla, with Chondrinidae, Enidae, 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’.
