Montezuma Well springsnail

The Montezuma Well springsnail (Pyrgulopsis montezumensis) is a species of freshwater snail in the family Hydrobiidae, the mud snails. It is endemic to Montezuma Well, a large sinkhole in Yavapai County, Arizona, in the United States.[1]

Montezuma Well springsnail
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Mollusca
Class:
Gastropoda
(unranked):
clade Caenogastropoda
clade Hypsogastropoda
clade Littorinimorpha
Superfamily:
Rissooidea
Family:
Hydrobiidae
Genus:
Pyrgulopsis
Species:
P. montezumensis
Binomial name
Pyrgulopsis montezumensis
Hershler, 1988

This snail has an ovate shell measuring no more than 2.7 millimeters tall. The tip of the snout is pigmented. The species is sexually dimorphic.[2]

This aquatic snail lives in springs with substrates of travertine limestone. It is limited to Montezuma Well and the first 100 meters of its outflow.[1] The snail has a preference for areas of the spring with bare limestone and no vegetation or sediment. It tolerates relatively high amounts of dissolved carbon dioxide and remains in areas of the springs where the CO2 concentration is high, possibly as a means of avoiding predators that cannot tolerate these conditions.[3]

References
  1. Cordeiro, J. 2012. Pyrgulopsis montezumensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.2. Downloaded on 12 September 2014.
  2. Pyrgulopsis montezumensis. Invertebrate Abstracts. Arizona Game and Fish Department.
  3. O'Brien, C. and D. W. Blinn. (1999). The endemic spring snail Pyrgulopsis montezumensis in a high CO2 environment: Importance of extreme chemical habitats as refugia. Freshwater Biology 42(2) 225–34.


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