Planorbis kahuica

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Planorbarius kahuica
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Mollusca Class: Gastropoda Subclass: Orthogastropoda Superorder: Heterobranchia Order: Pulmonata Family: Planorbidae Genus: Planorbis Species: P. kahuica
Binomial name
Planorbis kahuica Finlay & Laws, 1931

Planorbis kahuica, is a species of minute freshwater air-breathing snail, an aquatic pulmonate gastropod mollusk, or micromollusk in the family Planorbidae, the ram's horn snails, or planorbids. All planorbids have sinistral or left-coiling shells.

The species name kahuica is derived from "Kahu", a Māori personal name, and was part of the tribal name of the principal Māori tribe in the Hawke's Bay district of New Zealand.

Planorbis gastropod shells are challenging to make sense of in terms of their coiling and orientation. Most of the shells in this genus are almost planispiral in coiling, and when examining the shell, 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 the umbilicus is only as deeply "dished" as the sunken spire is.

Once you understand that a 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.

Contents 1 Distribution 2 Habitat 3 Shell description 4 References

[edit] Distribution

This pond snail is endemic to New Zealand; it is found on the east coast of the North Island between Gisborne and Palliser Bay.

[edit] Habitat

This species is found in swamps and dams.

[edit] Shell description

The shell is much larger than Planorbis corinna, and yet it has only three to three and a half whorls, which expand more rapidly.

Th shell coloration is usually dark greenish-brown, whitish in places, although some are light greenish-horn.

The shell is up to 6 mm in maximum diameter, and up to 1.75 mm in height.

[edit] References

• Powell A W B, New Zealand Mollusca, William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979 ISBN 0-00-216906-1
• Royal Society of New Zealand