Planorbarius corneus
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| Planorbarius corneus | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Planorbarius corneus (Linnaeus, 1758) |
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Planorbarius corneus, common name the great ramshorn, is a relatively large species of freshwater air-breathing snail, an aquatic pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Planorbidae, the ram's horn snails, or planorbids, which all have sinistral or left-coiling shells.
This species of shell appears to be dextral in coiling even though it is sinistral or left-handed.
Planorbid gastropod shells are hard to make sense of in terms of their coiling and orientation. Most of the shells in this family are almost planispiral in coiling, and it is important to bear in mind the fact that all planorbids have sinistral shells. To complicate matters further however:
- In life, these pond snails hold their shells upside down, with the umbilicus facing upward
- The spire of the shell is quite sunken in many species
- The umbilicus of the shell is very wide, and it in some species (including this one) the umbilicus is not as deeply "dished" as the sunken spire is.
Once you understand that the planorbid shell is sinistral, you can hold the shell with the aperture on the left and facing you, then the sunken spire side of the shell will be uppermost.
To repeat: the side of the shell which is in fact the spire (a sunken spire) faces down in the living animal, contrary to what is the case in almost all other shelled gastropods.
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[edit] Distribution
The native range of this pond snail is from Europe to central Asia.
- Not listed in IUCN red list – not evaluated (NE)[1]
- Czech Republic – least concern (LC)[2]
- Germany
- Netherlands[3]
- Russia – Sverdlovsk oblast[4]
- Slovakia
- Poland
- British Isles
- ...
[edit] Habitat
This large planorbid is found in water which is still, or only moving slowly, where there is a good growth of many different kinds of pond weeds, and where there are high levels of calcium dissolved in the water.
[edit] Parasites
This species of snail functions as a host for several parasite species:
- as first intermediate host for Prosthogonimus ovatus[5]
- as first intermediate host for Apatemon gracilis[6]
- as first and as second intermediate host for Hypoderaeum conoideum[7]
- as intermediate host for Syngamus trachea[8]
- as intermediate host for Typhlocoelum sisowi[9]
 Live adult Planorbarius corneus |
 P. corneus shell: view of the umbilicus (held uppermost in life) |
 P. corneus shell: view of the sunken spire (held face down in life) |
[edit] References
- ^ 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Cited 5 March 2007.
- ^ Juřičková L., Horsák M. & Beran L., 2001: Check-list of the molluscs (Mollusca) of the Czech Republic. Acta Soc. Zool. Bohem., 65: 25-40.
- ^ http://www.anemoon.org/anm/voorlopige-kaarten/zoetwatermollusken/wetenschappelijk/planorbarius-corneus/
- ^ http://ecoinf.uran.ru/content/4catalog/70.shtml
- ^ Prosthogonimus ovatus (Parasite Species Summary)
- ^ Apatemon gracilis (Parasite Species Summary)
- ^ Hypoderaeum conoideum (Parasite Species Summary)
- ^ Syngamus trachea (Parasite Species Summary)
- ^ Typhlocoelum sisowi (Parasite Species Summary)
- Janus, Horst, 1965. ‘’The young specialist looks at land and freshwater molluscs’’, Burke, London
[edit] External links
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