''Clausilia dubia'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of small, very elongate, left-handed air-breathing land snail, a

sinistral Sinistral and dextral, in some scientific fields, are the two types of chirality ("handedness") or relative direction. The terms are derived from the Latin words for "left" (''sinister'') and "right" (''dexter''). Other disciplines use different ...

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth. 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 or near the ground, as opposed to ...

pulmonate gastropod

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

in the family

Clausiliidae Clausiliidae, also known by their common name the door snails, are a taxonomic family of small, very elongate, mostly left-handed, air-breathing land snails, sinistral terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks.MolluscaBase eds. (2020). Mollusca ...

, the door snails, all of which have a

clausilium The clausilium is a calcareous anatomical structure which is found in one group of air-breathing land snails: terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Clausiliidae, the door snails. The clausilium is one part of the clausilial appara ...

.MolluscaBase eds. (2020). MolluscaBase. Clausilia dubia Draparnaud, 1805. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1050049 on 2020-08-17

Subspecies

* ''Clausilia dubia alpicola'' Clessin, 1878 * ''Clausilia dubia bucculenta'' Klemm, 1960 * ''Clausilia dubia carpathica'' Brancsik, 1888 * ''Clausilia dubia dubia'' Draparnaud, 1805 * ''Clausilia dubia dydima'' F. J. Schmidt, 1847 * ''Clausilia dubia floningiana'' Westerlund, 1890 * ''Clausilia dubia geretica'' Bourguignat, 1877 * ''Clausilia dubia gracilior'' Clessin, 1887 * ''Clausilia dubia gratiosa'' Sajó, 1968 * ''Clausilia dubia grimmeri'' L. Pfeiffer, 1848 * ''Clausilia dubia huettneri'' Klemm, 1960 * ''Clausilia dubia ingenua'' Hudec & Brabenec, 1963 * ''Clausilia dubia kaeufeli'' Klemm, 1960 * ''Clausilia dubia otvinensis'' H. von Gallenstein, 1895 * ''Clausilia dubia runensis'' Tschapeck, 1883 * ''Clausilia dubia schlechtii'' A. Schmidt, 1856 * ''Clausilia dubia speciosa'' A. Schmidt, 1856 * ''Clausilia dubia suttoni'' Westerlund, 1881 * ''Clausilia dubia tettelbachiana'' Rossmässler, 1838 * ''Clausilia dubia vindobonensis'' A. Schmidt, 1856

Distribution

The species is widespread in Europe, living in countries and islands including (among others): *

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

, the north of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

Balashov I. & Gural-Sverlova N. 2012. An annotated checklist of the terrestrial molluscs of Ukraine. ''Journal of Conchology''. 41 (1): 91-109.

Description

All the species of snails in the family of door snails are left-handed, which is an uncommon feature in gastropods in general. These snails have shells which are extremely high- spired, with numerous

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). Whorls in nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral ...

. ''Clausilia dubia'' is a relatively large species for this family, reaching 16 mm in height. The weight of the adult live snail is about 123 mg.

References

* Bank, R. A.; Neubert, E. (2017). Checklist of the land and freshwater Gastropoda of Europe. Last update: July 16, 2017 * Sysoev, A. V. & Schileyko, A. A. (2009). Land snails and slugs of Russia and adjacent countries. Sofia/Moskva (Pensoft). 312 pp., 142 plates dubia Molluscs of Europe Gastropods described in 1805 {{Clausiliidae-stub