Belt snails

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Belt snails
Belt snail (Helicodonta obvoluta)

Belt snail ( Helicodonta obvoluta )

Systematics
Subclass : Orthogastropoda
Superordinate : Heterobranchia
Order : Lung snails (pulmonata)
Subordination : Land snails (Stylommatophora)
Superfamily : Helicoidea
Family : Belt snails
Scientific name
Helicodontidae
Kobelt , 1904

The belt snails ( Helicodontidae) are a family from the suborder of the land snails (Stylommatophora). The family includes around 16 species.

features

The housings are thick disk-shaped, flat disk-shaped to flat-conical. The housing diameter of the adult animals reaches up to 20 mm. The navel is narrow to moderately wide and always unlocked. The whorls are convexly rounded or keeled. The edge of the mouth is more or less clearly turned over and can be lipped or pulled out into teeth. When it comes to the housing, brown tones predominate. The ornamentation is limited to more or less distinct growth stripes. In some species, long hairs sit on the surface of the housing. The animals close their housing in summer rest phases and / or in the winter break with a chalky epiphragma .

Occurrence, way of life and distribution

The species in the family live under litter and dead wood in forests, under stones, between rocks and boulders. They live depending on the type of mushrooms, detritus and also fresh plants. The main area of ​​distribution is the eastern Mediterranean region, the southern Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor. Some species are also common in the southern and western Alps. Only one species penetrates as far as Central Europe and southern England (probably a relic occurrence).

Systematics

The family of Helicodontidae is still treated by some authors as a subfamily of leaf snails (Hygromiidae). In more recent works, however, it is viewed as an independent family within the Helicoidea . The fauna Europaea and Bouchet and Rocroi even divide the belt snails into two subfamilies, Helicodontinae and Lindholmiolinae Schileyko, 1978.

literature

  • Philippe Bouchet & Jean-Pierre Rocroi: Part 2. Working classification of the Gastropoda . Malacologia, 47: 239-283, Ann Arbor 2005, ISSN  0076-2997
  • Rosina Fechter and Gerhard Falkner: molluscs. 287 pp., Mosaik-Verlag, Munich 1990 (Steinbach's Nature Guide 10), ISBN 3-570-03414-3
  • Jürgen H. Jungbluth and Dietrich von Knorre: Common names of land and freshwater mollusks in Germany (Gastropoda et Bivalvia). Mollusca, 26 (1): 105-156, Dresden 2008 ISSN  1864-5127 PDF
  • 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

Web links

Commons : Belt snails (Helicodontidae)  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files