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| The families of non-marine molluscs of Britain and Ireland (slugs, snails and mussels) |
Morphology. Snails, with a conspicuous, spiral, univalve shell.
The animal with two pairs of tentacles (but the anterior pair is vestigial). Eyes at the tips of the posterior tentacles.
The shell inoperculate; rising-spiral; 3 whorled; typically dextral; higher than wide; 5–17(–22) mm high; approximately 4.25–7 mm wide; height about 1.6–1.9 x the width; with the body whorl predominating and the spire small and short to high-spired and tapered gradually from the body whorl. The height of the spire about 0.1–0.23 x that of the shell. The spire acute to obtuse. The shell somewhat ovoid-asymmetric, or inverted-pyriform ("succiniform"); deeply sutured. The body whorl moderately convex to very strongly convex. The whorls of the spire moderately convex to very strongly convex. The whorls neither shouldered nor keeled. The aperture round to ovate; with neither teeth nor calluses. The columella smooth. The shell without an umbilicus. The shell thin-lipped; thin and translucent (glossy); amber-coloured or greenish; plain.
General biology, ecology. Terrestrial. In a diversity of damp, natural habitats.
Hermaphrodite.
Classification. Gastropoda; Pulmonata.
Representation in Britain and Ireland. “Amber snails”: Catinella (1), Oxyloma (2), Succinea (1).
Illustrations. • Oxyloma pfeifferi, O. sarsi, Succinea oblonga, S. putris (Ellis). SUCCINEIDAE. 5–10, Oxyloma pfeifferi (Rossmässler), "Pfeiffer's Amber Snail". 11 and 12, Oxyloma sarsi (Esmark), "Slender Amber Snail". 13 and 14, Succinea putris (Linn.), "Large Amber Snail". 16 and 17, Succinea oblonga Draparnaud, "Small Amber Snail" (var. agonostoma). From Ellis (1926, with dimensions added). • Oxyloma, Succinea (Adams). SUCCINEIDAE. 13, Succinea putris (Linn.), "Large Amber Snail". 14, Oxyloma sarsi (Esmark)?; referred by Adams to Succinea elegans Risso, the shell shape compares well with that of O. sarsi, but see also the closely similar Succinea pfeifferi (Rossmässler). 15, Succinea oblonga Draparnaud, "Small Amber Snail". From Adams (1896). • Oxyloma pfeifferi, Succinea oblonga, Succinea putris (Reeve). SUCCINEIDAE. 1, Succinea putris (L.), "Large Amber Snail"; 2, Succinea oblonga Draparnaud, "Small Amber Snail". 3, Oxyloma pfeifferi (Rossmässler) or O. sarsi (Esmark)? From Reeve (1863, with approximate scales added).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2005 onwards. The families of non-marine molluscs of Britain and Ireland (slugs, snails and mussels). Version: 5th August 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
