Blind snail

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Blind snail
Blind snail (Cecilioides acicula)

Blind snail ( Cecilioides acicula )

Systematics
Order : Lung snails (pulmonata)
Subordination : Land snails (Stylommatophora)
Superfamily : Achatinoidea
Family : Ground snails (Cecilioididae)
Genre : Cecilioides
Type : Blind snail
Scientific name
Cecilioides acicula
( OV Müller , 1774)

The blind snail ( Cecilioides acicula ), also known as the common blind snail or needle snail , is a species of snail belonging to the subordinate land snail (Stylommatophora). It is a small snail that lives almost exclusively in the ground and is blind.

features

The case is tall, slim and quite small (4.5 to 5.5 mm high and 1.2 mm wide). The apex is bluntly rounded. It has 5.5 slightly arched, regularly increasing turns. The sideline is therefore almost straight. The skin is very thin, smooth and shiny, translucent to transparent. Only empty housings become whitish-opaque over time. The mouth opening is pointed, longitudinally oval; it reaches about a third of the total housing height.

The soft body is yellowish-white and translucent. The animals can withdraw completely into the housing.

Reproduction

Mating takes place at the end of May. The egg-laying begins from the beginning of June. The animals usually lay a few, very large, calcareous, spherical eggs that can reach a diameter of 0.75 mm, an astonishing size for such a small animal. The eggs are laid individually, a total of only about 11 to 13 eggs are produced, from which the finished young hatch after a few days ( ovoviviparous ).

Occurrence and way of life

The blind snail is widespread in southern, central and eastern Europe. In the north the distribution area extends to southern Scandinavia and northern England. In Switzerland the species was found up to 1800 m altitude. She has since been abducted to Bermuda, North America, Mexico and New Zealand. The animals live underground in the gap systems of the ground and in scree fields, rock crevices and caves up to about 40 cm, more rarely also up to 70 cm depth and more. Occasionally they also occur in the uppermost soil layers and under moss cushions. They feed on mold.

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literature

  • Klaus Bogon: Land snails biology, ecology, biotope protection. 404 p., Natur Verlag, Augsburg 1990 ISBN 3-89440-002-1
  • Rosina Fechter, Gerhard Falkner: Mollusks. 287 pp., Mosaik-Verlag, Munich 1990 (Steinbach's Nature Guide 10), ISBN 3-570-03414-3
  • Ewald Frömming: Biology of the Central European Landgastropods. 404 p., Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1954.
  • Michael P. Kerney, RAD Cameron, Jürgen H. Jungbluth: The land snails of Northern and Central Europe. 384 pp., Paul Parey, Hamburg & Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-490-17918-8

Individual evidence

  1. ^ AnimalBase
  2. ↑ Bieler, R. & Slapcinsky, J. 2000. A case study for development of an Iceland fauna: recent terrestrial mollusks of Bermuda. Nemouria No. 44: 1-99.
  3. ^ Henry Augustus Pilsbry: Land Mollusca of North America (north of Mexico). Volume 2, part 1. Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 1946.
  4. ↑ http://www.natureserve.org cited in August 26, 2008 Comprehensive Report Species - Cecilioides acicula
  5. ↑ GM Barker: Naturalized terrestrial Stylommatophora (Mollusca: Gastropoda). Fauna of New Zealand. No. 38. Manaaki Whenua Press 1999.

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