Backpack snails

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Backpack snails
Gray-yellow backpack snail (Testacella haliotidea Draparnaud, 1801)

Gray-yellow backpack snail ( Testacella haliotidea Draparnaud, 1801)

Systematics
Superordinate : Heterobranchia
Order : Lung snails (pulmonata)
Subordination : Land snails (Stylommatophora)
Superfamily : Testacelloidea
Family : Testacellidae
Genre : Backpack snails
Scientific name of the  family
Testacellidae
Gray , 1840
Scientific name of the  genus
Testacella
Cuvier , 1800

The backpack snails ( Testacella ) are the only genus of the family Testacellidae from the suborder of the land snails (Stylommatophora). It is predatory live snails with a highly reduced housing. There are six species in Europe.

features

The case is greatly reduced and sits like a little cap on the back of the body. The animals are very slender and stretched out to over 12 cm, but they can also contract very strongly. Two furrows run from the coat at the back of the body to the front. They each branch out laterally. The body color varies from yellow, cream to brown; sometimes the body is also spotted darker. The jaws are reduced, the radula has long, pointed, rearward-facing teeth that enable the prey to be held on.

Brown backpack snail ( Testacella maugei ), contracted

Way of life, occurrence and distribution

The nocturnal representatives of the family live predatory on earthworms that z. T. are followed into their living tubes. These are grasped with the radula and swallowed whole. During the day the backpack snails hide in earth tubes. Most of the species are synanthropic , which is explained by the abundance of earthworms in humus-rich garden soils. The family is widespread in the western Mediterranean, the Mid-Atlantic Islands, the British Isles, and western France. One species has now also been proven in Germany. They were also abducted to other regions, e.g. B. to New Zealand.

Systematics

The family of backpack snails is the nominate family of the superfamily Testacelloidea. It currently only contains the genus Testacella , but most authors divide it into two subgenus, the nominate subgenus Testacella (Testacella) Cuvier, 1800 and Testacella (Testacelloides) AJ Wagner, 1914.

supporting documents

literature

  • Rosina Fechter and Gerhard Falkner: molluscs. 287 pp., Mosaik-Verlag, Munich 1990 (Steinbach's Nature Guide 10) ISBN 3-570-03414-3
  • 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. ^ Gary M. Barker: Naturalized terrestrial Stylommatophora (Mollusca: Gastropoda). Fauna of New Zealand, 38: 3-249, Lincoln 1999.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Wilhelm Wenz: Gastropoda extramarina tertiaria. In: Carl Diener (Ed.), Fossilium catalogus, 1 Animalium , 17: 1-352, Berlin 1923 Online at www.biodiversitylibrary.org (pp. 207ff.).
  3. ↑ Gianbattista Nardi & Marco Bodon: Una nuova specie di Testacella Lamarck, 1801, per l'Italia Settentrionale (Gastropoda: Pulmonata: Testacellidae). Boll. Malacol., 47: 150-164, 2011 PDF
  4. ↑ a b c W. Richard Schlickum: Two new fossil species of the genus Testacella. Archives for Molluscology, 96 (1/2): 63-66, Frankfurt / Main 1967.

Web links

Commons : Testacella  - collection of images, videos and audio files