Sicilian predatory snail
| Sicilian predatory snail | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Poiretia dilatata | ||||||||||||
| ( Philippi , 1836) |
The Sicilian predatory snail ( Poiretia dilatata ) is a predatory land snail from the family of Spiraxidae , native to the Mediterranean region in southern Italy and Greece , which belongs to the suborder of land snails (Stylommatophora).
features
The right-hand wound, slender spindle-shaped housing is about 3.0 cm to 4.6 cm long in the adult animal and has a diameter of about 1.0 cm to 1.7 cm. It then has about six to seven quite convex whorls with slightly irregular jagged seams. The case mouth is about 5.5 mm to 9.0 mm wide. The surface of the housing typically has a yellowish to brownish base color with a darker greenish to brownish shade. The snail itself has a similar color to the basic color of the snail shell.
The mucus secreted by the suprapedal gland (at the front end of the foot) contains acid that dissolves the shell of captured snails, allowing the predatory snail to reach the meat of the prey. This is crushed with the help of the powerful radula.
Like other land snails, the Sicilian predatory snail is a hermaphrodite , with two snails fertilizing each other. The embryos develop into finished snails in the egg shells.
Occurrence, way of life and distribution
The Sicilian predatory snail occurs in a wide variety of habitats in the Mediterranean , ranging from sparse vegetation to forest. Their natural range extends in Italy from Ancona to Calabria and Sicily ; in Greece it includes the Peloponnese and north-west Crete .
Like other species of its genus, the Sicilian predator snail eats other shell snails, in whose shells holes are etched by the acidic slime of the predator snail.
literature
- Rudolph Amandus Philippi: Enumeratio molluscorum Siciliæ cum viventium tum in tellure tertiaria fossilium, quae in itinere suo observavit , Volume 1, pp. 1–14, 1–267 (1), plates 1–12. Schropp, Berolinum 1836.
- Renate A. Helwerda (2015): Predatory Poiretia (Stylommatophora, Oleacinidae) snails - histology and observations . Vita Malacologica 13, pp. 35-48.
Web links
- F. Welter Schultes: Species summary for Poiretia dilatata (Philippi, 1836) . AnimalBase, SUB Goettingen.
- The diet of snails II: Carnivorous land snails . The Sicilian predatory snail ( Poiretia dilatata ) on Weichtiere.at