Vitrina pellucida

Vitrina pellucida is species of small land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Vitrinidae, the glass snails.

Vitrina pellucida
An engraving of Vitrina pellucida by Orlando Jewitt from his 1863 book The land and freshwater mollusks indigenous to, or naturalized in, the British Isles
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Mollusca
Class:
Gastropoda
(unranked):
clade Euthyneura
clade Panpulmonata
clade Eupulmonata
clade Stylommatophora
informal group Sigmurethra
clade Limacoid clade
Superfamily:
Limacoidea
Family:
Vitrinidae
Genus:
Vitrina
Species:
V. pellucida
Binomial name
Vitrina pellucida
Synonyms
  • Helix pellucida Müller, 1774
  • Vitrina (Phenacolimax) Bielzi Kimakowicz, 1890

Description

This species is a 'semi-slug' with a flattened, globular shell. The animal is pale grey with darker head and tentacles. It is large in comparison with the shell, and cannot completely retreat into it. The shell is subglobose, somewhat smooth, pellucid and greenish hyaline in colour. The shell has 3 whorls that enlarge rapidly and are somewhat convex. The body whorl is wide and a little flattened below. The suture is wrinkled. The aperture is lunately rounded.[2] The umbilicus is very small.[3]

The width of the shell is 6 mm, the height is 3.5 mm.[2]

A shell of Vitrina pellucida
4 shells of Vitrina pellucida, scale bar is in mm
Apical view of the shell of Vitrina pellucida.
Umbilical view of the shell of Vitrina pellucida.

Distribution

This species is known to occur in a number of countries and islands in Western Europe and Central Europe, including:

Ecology

Predators: This snail is eaten by hedgehogs.[2]

Food: This species eats liverworts (Jungermanniaceae) and decayed leaves. It will also eat dead earthworms and horse manure.[2]

Habitat: These snails live in moist and shady places, but are not usually observed until late in the autumn.[2] These snails occur both in natural and modified habitats, such as in meadows and grasslands, in deciduous and coniferous forests, and in wasteground.[6]

Eggs: The eggs are deposited in small heaps, and have a membraneous covering.[2]

Parasites of Vitrina pellucida include:

References

This article incorporates public domain text from the reference[2]

  1. Müller O. F. (1774). Vermivm terrestrium et fluviatilium, seu animalium infusoriorum, helminthicorum, et testaceorum, non marinorum, succincta historia. Volumen alterum. - pp. I-XXVI [= 1-36], 1-214, [1-10]. Havniæ & Lipsiæ. (Heineck & Faber).
  2. Tryon G. W. (1885). Manual of Conchology; structural and systematic. With illustrations of the species. Second series: Pulmonata. (2)1: 141-143. Plate 30, fig. 12-16.
  3. Wiese, V. (2014). Die Landschnecken Deutschlands: Finden - Erkennen – Bestimmen. Quelle & Meyer: Wiebelsheim.
  4. (in Czech) Horsák M., Juřičková L., Beran L., Čejka T. & Dvořák L. (2010). "Komentovaný seznam měkkýšů zjištěných ve volné přírodě České a Slovenské republiky. [Annotated list of mollusc species recorded outdoors in the Czech and Slovak Republics]". Malacologica Bohemoslovaca, Suppl. 1: 1-37. PDF.
  5. Balashov I. & Gural-Sverlova N. (2012). "An annotated checklist of the terrestrial molluscs of Ukraine". Journal of Conchology 41(1): 91-109.
  6. Welter-Schultes, F.W. 2012. European non-marine molluscs, a guide for species identification: Bestimmungsbuch für europäische Land- und Süsswassermollusken. Planet Poster Editions: Göttingen.
  7. Olsson I.-M., Stéen M. & Mann H. (1993). "Gastropod hosts of Elaphostrongylus spp. (Protostrongylidae, Nematoda)". Rangifer 13(1): 53-55. PDF.
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