''Anostoma octodentatum'', common name Brazilian up-mouth snail, is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of air-breathing

land snail A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. ''Land snail'' is the common name for terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have gastropod shell, shel ...

, a

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth, as opposed to extraterrestrial. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on o ...

pulmonate Pulmonata or pulmonates is an informal group (previously an order, and before that, a subclass) of snails and slugs characterized by the ability to breathe air, by virtue of having a pallial lung instead of a gill, or gills. The group inclu ...

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...

in the family

Odontostomidae Odontostomidae is a Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic family (biology), family of medium-sized to large, air-breathing, tropical and sub-tropical land snails, Terrestrial animal, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod Mollusca, molluscs in the superfamily O ...

. ''Anostoma octodentatum'' is the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

of the genus ''

Anostoma ''Anostoma'', common name the up-mouth snails, is a genus of tropical air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Odontostomidae.Breure A. S. H. & Ablett J. D. (2012) "Annotated type catalogue of the Bothriem ...

''. The type locality is tropical South America, east of the Andes. Pilsbry H. A. 1901. in Tryon G. W. & Pilsbry H. A. 1901-1902
''Oriental Bulimoid Helicidae. Odontostominae. Cerionidae'' Volume 14
Manual of Conchology. Second series: Pulmonata. page 109-111.

Subspecies

* ''Anostoma octodentatum verreauxianum'' Hupé, 1857
photo

Distribution and habitat

This species occurs in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

in the states of

Ceará Ceará (, ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. It is the List of Brazilian states by population, eighth-largest Brazilian State by ...

and

Amapá Amapá (; ) is one of the 26 federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil. It is in the North Region, Brazil, North Region of Brazil. It is Federative units of Brazil#List, the second-least populous state and the eighteenth-largest state by area ...

, where it is found uncommonly, living on the ground. accessed 19 February 2009

Shell description

The

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

of this species is biconvex. The height of the shell is half or nearly half of the greatest diameter. The shell is solid, and obtusely angular at the periphery. The shell color is a brown-tinted whitish; the base is copiously dappled with oblong spots, and more or less spirally clouded with dull reddish brown. The upper surface has a broad reddish-brown band above the periphery. This band is often mottled, and fades out at its upper edge. There is a narrow dark spiral band bordering the suture below, fading on the two earlier whorls. The surface is slightly striate above, and on the first half of the base. The last half whorl is regularly latticed or malleate in a diamond pattern. The shell has 5

whorls A whorl ( or ) is an individual circle, oval, volution or equivalent in a whorled pattern, which consists of a spiral or multiple concentric objects (including circles, ovals and arcs). In nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral diagram ...

; the first one is flattened. The last half-whorl is straightened out: it runs to the periphery and is then upturned. It has three long and one short groove behind the lip. The

aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...

of the shell is subhorizontal, rounded, and obstructed by eight folds. The peristome is white, very broadly expanded, reflexed and recurved, rather thick, and arcuate throughout. The

parietal callus A parietal callus is a feature of the shell anatomy of some groups of snails, i.e. gastropods. It is a thickened calcareous deposit which may be present on the parietal wall of the aperture of the adult shell. The parietal wall is the margin of ...

is translucent-white, and spreads broadly upon the last and preceding whorls. The parietal margin bears three lamellae: a small, triangular angle-lamella, a large, erect parietal lamella, the inner end of which curves behind the preceding tooth, and a smaller, straight infraparietal lamella near the middle of the parietal margin. The outer lip bears five folds: subequal, straight and rather large upper and lower palatal folds within the outer margin, a somewhat smaller columellar lamella below them, and two still smaller suprapalatal folds on the upper margin, the upper one of which is smaller and tuberculiform. The width of the adult shell varies from 39 to 45 mm, the height from 20–21 mm.

References

This article incorporates public domain text from the reference

External links

Some information about distribution and life habits

A photo of a live animal seen from above

Four good quality views of one shell

Photo of a shell 1

Photo of the shell 3
{{Taxonbar, from=Q4770188 Odontostomidae Gastropods described in 1807