Varna tower snail
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Varna tower snail ( Leucomastus varnensis ) |
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| Leucomastus varnensis | ||||||||||||
| ( Pfeiffer , 1847) |
The Varna tower snail ( Leucomastus varnensis ) is a species of land living snail from the family of wolverines (Enidae); the family is counted to the subordination of the land snails (Stylommatophora).
features
The elongated cylindrical housing is 19 to 26 mm high and 6 to 7 mm wide. It has eight to nine (to ten) turns, which are moderately strongly convex at the periphery. The last turn rises very little towards the mouth. The mouth is obliquely U-shaped and angled at the top. The mouth edge is slightly curved outwards. It is slightly thickened and tapered off sharply. The mouth has no teeth or lamellae, but a parietal callus . The housings are whitish with faint brown stripes. The surface of the embryonic convolutions is smooth, the surface of the postembryonic convolutions is ornamented with faint radial folds and is shiny. The umbilicus is almost closed by the folded edge of the mouth.
In the male tract of the sexual apparatus, a short, conical flagellum is formed at the entry of the very long vas deferens into the very long epiphallus. The initial part of the epiphallus is helically wound. A short, conical blind sack (epiphallus caecum) has developed approximately in the middle of the epiphallus length. The epiphallus is about three to four times as long as the penis, but has a smaller diameter. The penile appendix opens separately into the atrium. It is very long, longer than the combined epiphallus / penis length. A penile caecum is not developed. The penile appendix has a very thick lower part, a short spherical part, a very long and thin, several times swollen middle part and a long, elongated club-shaped end part. The retractor muscle divides into two strands, one of which attaches to the epiphallus, near the epiphallus flagellum, the other to the penis, between the middle and transition from the penis to the epiphallus. The free fallopian tube is longer than the vagina. The spermatheque is comparatively very short, the bladder comes to rest at the lower end of the prostate. A long, thin diverticulum branches off from the stalk of the spermathec .
Similar genera
The March snail ( Zebrina detrita ) is much wider in relation to its height with clear brown stripes. It differs essentially in the anatomy of the genital apparatus. The retractor muscle, which is divided into two strands, starts on the one hand, as in Leucomastus varnensis, on the penis, between the middle and transition epiphallus / penis, and on the other hand near the end of the lower thick part of the penile appendix and not, as in Leucomastus, on the epiphallus, near the epiphallus flagellum. In Zebrina , the epiphallus flagellum and caecum are opposite at the transition between the spermatic duct and the epiphallus.
Geographical distribution and habitat
The distribution area of the Varna tower snail ( Leucomastus varnensis ) is the coastal region of the Black Sea in Romania and Bulgaria . In some locations it occurs in large numbers there. The Varna tower snail ( Leucomastus varnensis ) has been introduced to Thuringia and has established itself there.
In the natural range of the species, the animals live in open terrain with individual smaller bushes as well as grasses and herbs, often even on sandy soils. They occur there in the hill country near the coast or near lakes further away from the coast. In Thuringia the species lives on dry limestone grass .
Taxonomy
The taxon was set up in 1847 by Ludwig Georg Karl Pfeiffer as Bulimus varnensis . The species was later mostly put to Zebrina . It was not until Gümüş & Neubert (2012) separated some species from Zebrina and placed them in the genus Leucomastus , which they re-established as an independent genus from the synonymy of Zebrina .
Danger
Since the species was introduced in Germany , it is not rated in the Red Lists .
supporting documents
literature
- Alexandru V. Grossu: Gastropoda Romaniae 2 Subclasa Pulmonata I Ordo Basommatophora II Ordo Stylommatophora Suprafamiliile: Succinacea, Cochlicopacea, Pupillacea. 443 S., Bucharest 1987 (pp. 344-346).
- Burçin Aşkım Gümüş, Eike Neubert: New taxa of terrestrial molluscs from Turkey (Gastropoda, Pristilomatidae, Enidae, Hygromiidae, Helicidae). ZooKeys, 171: 17-37, 2012 doi : 10.3897 / zookeys.171.2273
- Anatolij A. Schileyko: Treatise on Recent Terrestrial Pulmonate Molluscs. Part 2. Gastrocoptidae, Hypselostomatidae, Vertiginidae, Truncatellinidae, Pachnodidae, Enidae, Sagdidae. Ruthenica, Supplement 2 (2): 129-261, Moscow 1998 ISSN 0136-0027
- Francisco W. Welter-Schultes: European non-marine molluscs, a guide for species identification = identification book for European land and freshwater mollusks. A1-A3 S., 679 S., Q1-Q78 S., Planet Poster Ed., Göttingen 2012, ISBN 3-933922-75-5 , ISBN 978-3-933922-75-5 (p. 185)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Vollrath Wiese: The land snails of Germany. 352 pp., Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2014 ISBN 978-3-494-01551-4 (p. 115)
- ^ A b Ludwig Pfeiffer: Diagnoses of new land snails collected by Frivaldsky. Zeitschrift für Malakozoologie, 4 (12): 191–192, Kassel. Online at www.biodiversitylibrary.org (p. 192)
