Physa
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Physa is a genus of small, left-handed or sinistral, air-breathing freshwater snails, aquatic pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Physidae.
These snails eat algae, diatoms and other detritus.
[edit] Shell description
These small snails are quite distinctive, because they have shells that are sinistral, which means that if you hold the shell such that the spire is pointing up, then the aperture is on the left-hand side.
The shells of Physa species have a long and large aperture, a pointed spire, and no operculum. The shells are thin and corneous and rather transparent.
[edit] Species
Species in the genus include
- Physa columbiana (Hemphill, 1890)
- Physa concolor
- Physa fontinalis - Fountain bladder snail
- Physa gyrina (Say, 1821)
- Physa heterostropha (Say, 1817)
- Physa hordacea (I. Lea, 1864)
- Physa integra (Haldeman, 1841)
- Physa jennessi Dall, 1919
- Physa lordi (Baird, 1863)
- Physa marmorata Guilding 1828
- Physa megalochlamys Taylor, 1988
- Physa natricina Taylor, 1988
- Physa nuttalli
- Physa propingua (Tryon, 1865)
- Physa pumilia Conrad, 1834
- Physa siberica Westerlund, 1876
- Physa skinneri Taylor, 1954
- Physa vernalis Taylor et Jokinen, 1984
[edit] References
- * Janus, Horst, 1965. ‘’The young specialist looks at land and freshwater molluscs’’, Burke, London
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