Trochulus hispidus

Trochulus hispidus
A live individual of Trochulus hispidus (an older adult with most of the hairs worn off of the shell)
Five views of a shell of Trochulus hispidus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
(unranked): clade Heterobranchia
clade Euthyneura
clade Panpulmonata
clade Eupulmonata
clade Stylommatophora
informal group Sigmurethra
Superfamily: Helicoidea
Family: Hygromiidae
Subfamily: Hygromiinae
Tribe: Trochulini
Genus: Trochulus
Species: T. hispida
Binomial name
Trochulus hispidus
(Linnaeus, 1758)[2]
Synonyms

Trichia hispida

Trochulus hispidus, previously known as Trichia hispida, common name, the "hairy snail", is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Hygromiidae, the hairy snails and their allies.

Distribution

This species occurs in a number of European countries and islands including:

Western Europe:

Northern Europe:

Central Europe:

Southern Europe:

Eastern Europe:

Description

The 3-6 x 5-11 mm shell has 5-6 moderately convex whorls which are rounded or very slightly keeled at the periphery. The aperture has a thin white lip inside. The umbilicus is open and usually wide at 1/8-1/4 of shell diameter. In colour the shell is brown to cream, sometimes with a light band at the periphery. The periostracum is irregularly striated, and densely covered with short (0.2-0.3 mm), curved hairs. These hairs usually remain in the umbilicus if worn away from the rest of the shell. Lost hairs leave pronounced scars.[4]

The animal is brownish grey with a darker anterior part.[4]

Scanning electron micrograph of the love dart of Trochulus hispidus, Upper image is lateral view - scale bar 500 μm (0.5 mm). Lower image is a cross-section near the base - scale bar 50 μm.

Anatomy

This species of snail creates and uses love darts before mating. The love dart of this species is thorn-shaped.

Shepeleva (2014) studied eyes of Trochulus hispidus.[5]

Ecology

The size of the egg is 1.5 mm.[6]

Interestingly, a hairy snail was found in the plumage of a great tit (Parus major) wintering in SW Poland in 2010. This passerine was the smallest bird species reported to carry a gastropod.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pall-Gergely B. (2013). "Trochulus hispidus". In: IUCN 2014. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.1. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 02 July 2014.
  2. ↑ Linnaeus C. 1758. Systema naturae per regna tria naturæ, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata. pp. [1-4], 1-824. Holmiae. (Salvius).
  3. ↑ Balashov I. & Gural-Sverlova N. 2012. An annotated checklist of the terrestrial molluscs of Ukraine. Journal of Conchology. 41 (1): 91-109.
  4. 1 2 "Species summary for Trochulus hispidus". AnimalBase, last modified 4 January 2014, accessed 28 June 2014.
  5. ↑ (in Russian) Shepeleva I. P. (2014). "Сравнительный анализ камерных глаз брюхоногих легочных моллюсков Trochulus hispidus (Linnaeus, 1758) из Южной Швеции и Калининградской области (Stylommatophora, Hygromiidae). A comparative analysis of the camera eyes of gastropod pulmonate mollusk Trochulus hispidus (Linnaeus, 1758) from the South Sweden and Kaliningrad Region (Stylommatophora, Hygromiidae)". Ruthenica 24(2): 123-127 PDF.
  6. ↑ Heller J.: Life History Strategies. in Barker G. M. (ed.): The biology of terrestrial molluscs. CABI Publishing, Oxon, UK, 2001, ISBN 0-85199-318-4. 1-146, cited page: 428.
  7. ↑ RUSIECKI S. & RUSIECKA A. 2013. Hairy snail Trochulus hispidus (Linnaeus, 1758) in flight - a note on avian dispersal of snails. Folia Malacologica 21(2):111-112.

Further reading

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