Black-mouthed field snail
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Black-mouthed field snail ( Otala lactea ) |
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| Otala lactea | ||||||||||||
| ( OV Müller , 1774) |
The black-mouthed field snail ( Otala lactea ) is a terrestrial snail species from the family of the Schnirkelschnecken ( Helicidae ).
features
The housing is flat-conical to flattened conical. It measures 15 to 21 × 30 to 40 mm. The 4.5 to 5 turns slowly increase. The last turn drops sharply from the spiral plane towards the mouth. The mouth is widened, the edge of the mouth is turned over and greatly widened. The edge of the mouth and the inner mouth are dark brown in color and shiny. The lower edge is thickened like knots or teeth. The outside is colored very variably, but mostly colored brown, gray-brown or light brown. It often wears four darker spiral bands. The umbilicus is closed and covered by the edge of the mouth.
The soft body of the animal is gray-yellow, with the front part being a little darker. The upper tentacles are long and gray, the lower tentacles relatively short and yellowish. The love arrow has four edges, which in turn are broadened on the outside.
Geographical occurrence, habitat and way of life
The black-mouthed field snail occurs in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula , on the Balearic Islands and in Morocco . It lives there in rocky scrubland, but also in open terrain such as rock heaths and rock steppes. The species has now also been introduced to North America , Bermuda , Cuba and Southeast Australia.
According to E. Frömming, animals that were kept in captivity preferred to eat fresh plant material. In the summer the animals go into a summer dormancy lasting several months. To do this, the mouth is closed with an epiphragm .
swell
Individual evidence
- ↑ weichtiere.at - Homepage of R. Nordsieck
- ↑ M. Christopher Barnhart: Gas Permeability of the Epiphragm of a Terrestrial Snail, Otala lactea. Physiological Zoology, 56 (3): 436-444, 1983
- ^ Ewald Frömming: Biology of the Central European Landgastropods. 404 p., Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1954.
literature
- Rosina Fechter and Gerhard Falkner: molluscs. 287 pp., Mosaik-Verlag, Munich 1990 (Steinbach's Nature Guide 10) ISBN 3-570-03414-3
